The Royal House
by StrangerEmotion
Summary: An unforeseen flaw in both Dumbledore's and Voldemort's plans forces a change in the entire War. Hermione Granger just getting her wand at Ollivander's discovers she is the matrilineal descendant of the missing Royal House that's only offshoots exist in the Prince and Malfoy lines. In the course of a day she learns she is not only capable of magic but also of something much more...
1. Chapter 1

...important: social change.

**Disclaimer: Not mine, never going to be mine. Not for profit, or individual resale.**

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**Chapter 1:**

**The Royal Concept**

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**Quick note to all readers, chapters 2 through 11 have yet to be beta'd. I will be revising them on and off when I have the time. One other note, no pairing is implied by the inclusion of the characters in the characters box. No ships are final, everything is subject to change with further chapters. With all that said, you may now continue with your regularly scheduled programming.**

******Now beta'd by Bluefirefly5. =^_^=**

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Hermione Granger walked into the wand shop with her parents, John and Jean Granger, from the crowded street outside. Instantly, she felt a powerful swell in magic upon her entrance, and she wondered if that happened for all new witches and wizards, as a sort of welcoming to the world of magic. Her parents looked curious, but not awed, so she didn't think they felt it. She stepped closer to the boxes; there was no one around in the shop, and the presence got stronger and more insistent. A tape measure twitched on the floor, but then lay still when a silver haired man with eyes shaped like moons peered out from the stacks and stacks of boxes. "Curious, very curious. I wonder..."

"Sir? Do you feel that? It's quite distracting." Hermione gestured at the boxes, each one filled with a wand, that were the main feature of the small shop. "Is this normal? I mean, does it normally feel this intense?"

Ollivander, she guessed that was the proprietor's name, simply came forward with a box so old that it was made of a fine stone. "There's no question. The presence you are feeling is from this one, is it not?"

Ollivander only held the box out to her to take. The lock that had kept it closed made an audible click, and the lid rose of its own volition to reveal a fine looking wand that was the combination of four woods grown together. She did not remain in the dark for long, as Ollivander answered her unspoken question. "Acacia, Ash, Rowan, and Vine. Separately very powerful, but together they are incomparable to any other wand. They are from the Royal Gardens of our Ancient House, that ruled in time immemorial. No one but the true descendant of that line can even open the box, let alone pick up the wand, as you have done."

With the wand in her hand, she felt it amplify something inside of her that she did not realize that she had even possessed. She could feel her magic, as if it was the blood in her veins, coursing through her and filling her with vitality. She looked back at her parents, but they were as dumbstruck as she was; they knew nothing of this hidden destiny.

"Did you say something about royalty and being a true descendant, Mr. Ollivander? But I'm only Hermione Granger. I'm a muggleborn."

"We always assumed they had died out. No one had ever checked to see if they had simply faded into muggle life as squibs. Fascinating, truly fascinating. Dumbledore will need to be informed, of course."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, it had to just be this old man believing in fairy tales. Of course, as she was thinking that, another family walked into the shop. The three blondes looked absolutely aristocratic, nothing about them made them seem the kind prone to such wildly impossible beliefs and yet...

"What is this, Ollivander? A joke wand made to look like the Royal Wand? Who are you trying to fool by putting it into the hands of a girl like her?" The boy spoke up, before he was pulled back by his expensively tailored collar by the man. The woman stood back, and watched with a calculating expression.

"Draco, be quiet, will you?" The man spoke, as he approached Hermione with all the grace someone of his breeding could possess. "I apologize for my son, Your Majesty. There have been too many false claims about your lineage for him to realize yours is true."

"Sir, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not sure I believe it myself. Your son would seem wise not to trust a claim such as this one." Hermione was trying especially hard to not laugh at the absurdity that had taken hold of her life so far. Finding out you are magical is one thing. Finding out you are a magical princess is quite another. She did not think she was cut from the same kind of cloth as someone of Usagi Tsukino's order. For one, she wasn't air-headed enough to think that becoming a magical princess was the best thing ever, and would have absolutely no consequences.

"Yes, Your Majesty, but Draco ignored even the most basic of manners while doing so, and will thus be spoken to later, I assure you." The man gestured to his son and wife, "Allow me to introduce my son, Draco Lucius Malfoy, and my wife Narcissa Malfoy née Black of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. Lords and Ladyships of your Kingdom, since before Hogwarts and Merlin." As one the entire shop besides herself, and her quite astonished parents, bowed before her. "I am Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, at your service."

"In turn, allow me to introduce my parents. John and Jean Granger of the Most Ancient and Noble Profession of Dentists." Only her parents laughed; the other parties in the shop seemed as confused as she had been previously. "I am their daughter and only heir, Hermione Jean Granger."

Finally one of her parents had come out of their shocked state. "Hermione, is this an elaborate joke, or are we meant to believe my ancestors were like you without me having known about it? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Opening a box doesn't seem to match the claim of being of Royal blood."

The rest of the shop seemed dumbfounded that anything else would be needed, except Draco who reached for her wand and was struck in the chest with a purple bolt of energy. Hermione hadn't even noticed him moving for it, so she couldn't have fired on him. He was forced into a deferential position on the floor. "Oh."

She lifted the wand to get a better look at it, and it was shooting angry looking sparks. On instinct she caressed it, and the spell and the sparks both stopped. Draco rose unsteadily from the floor, lacking much of the grace he had originally shown. "My apologies, Your Majesty." Draco looked ashamed, "I shouldn't have tried to touch what is rightfully yours."

It was still so unreal. She simply nodded her acceptance. "I think my parents and I should like to finish our shopping. It was nice meeting you all." Her parents stayed back to settle the bill, as she left the shop in a reflective mood.

She walked past a man of Giant proportions and a scrawny boy with dark hair, green eyes, and glasses without batting an eye.

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The next time she saw the Malfoy boy was on the train to Hogwarts. She was looking for a boy named Neville's toad, and he got up from his compartment full of toadies (much to the toadies confusion) and helped her track it down with an old, possibly dark, spell that he had read from his family library. He was a deft hand at wand work, and seemed to have read quite a few many more spell books than her, which seemed natural considering he had the fortune to be born in a family that had been wizards for generations. For a moment she panicked, thinking she could never catch up with those kids. But then she met Ron Weasley, and realized that old blood doesn't make you more likely to be able to take advantage of your status.

Draco didn't seem to like him much. She couldn't say she liked Weasley either, with how he had looked at her earlier, when she was asking after Neville's toad. To be honest, he seemed to be a bit of a prat. Draco seemed to be especially more vehement with his dislike, and she guessed there must be some family history of bad blood between the two families. "Is the Malfoy family line much older than the Weasleys?"

Draco smirked, she was coming to know that as his signature look, "Of course, there are not many older, or more powerful family lines than mine. The Black family, of course, is one of them, as well as the now defunct Prince line, which served in the past as one of your lines Royal Advisers."

"Draco, this is ridiculous. How am I supposed to believe that I have some ancient heraldry that has gone unnoticed for many generations?" She stopped outside of the train, and finding Neville still looking for the toad now resting in her hands, she signaled him over. "Neville, I found him."

Neville looked to be about ready to cry, he seemed so happy to have Trevor back again. "Thank you, Hermione."

She shook her head at the boy, and said, "Don't mention it. Oh, and Neville?"

"Yes?" He seemed confused that she would want to continue talking with him. She wondered about what he had gone through to be so shy and insecure.

"The Longbottoms are purebloods, right?"

He nodded, still seeming quite unsure where this conversation was going. Trevor was wriggling in his grasp.

"They would know about a Royal House, if one existed, wouldn't they?"

"Sort of, the Longbottoms don't qualify as Most Ancient, not like the Malfoys, on account of us coming after the Royal House had vanished. Only a few families still have records and folklore from that era." He shrugged, "Sorry I couldn't answer your question better, Hermione."

"It's fine, Neville. It was a good start."

He seemed reluctant to say anything more, but asked, "Why did you want to know about the old Royalty, Hermione?"

Draco smirked, "Oh, didn't you realize Neville? The Most Revered Princess helped you find your toad today, with her Most Dashing Royal Adviser, of course."

Neville had an expression that could best be described as the 'are you shitting me?' face. Not that Hermione would say that out loud, it still felt taboo even inside her own mind. "Thank you, Draco. I don't think I could have said it quite as unbelievably as that."

Neville head was darting between them like an excited state electron. "Is it true? I mean, what proof do you have besides his word."

She pulled out the Royal Wand. "I wouldn't try to touch it," She warned. "It has somewhat a mind of its own."

Neville looked awed. "Grand-mum used to tell me stories about this wand. No one has seen it in a thousand years. 'Wand of Ash, Rowan, Acacia, and Vine. In a state Most Entwined. For the Royals long ago. The wand that they could only know.'"

Draco nodded, "Even the famed Elder Wand isn't as legendary, although it remains to be seen how the Royal Wand would fare against it. I'd pay good money to see that duel."

She was a bit mystified herself, listening to the way they put it. Maybe, with the assistance of a wand like that, she would be able to catch up to Draco in less time, or even pass him. Of course, she had no way of knowing that, even without the Royal Wand, she would be a formidable force in no time. She shook her head slightly, 'No, to rely on an object is to become dependent on it. Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.'

"That's something I hadn't known yet. Thank you, Neville."

Neville smiled, seeming much more sure of himself than he had five minutes previously. She was glad to see him come out of his shell, even if only a little bit.

Draco laughed, "I didn't think you would want poetry, Your Majesty. Should I have known that, I would have made even the loosest of women blush."

She shook her head. "Draco, we are eleven years old. Try to remember that, will you?"

He merely grinned, and tapped his head. "What once is known, cannot be unknown."

She stepped into a boat with Draco and Neville. His cronies had to go on another boat to themselves, as they were a bit too large to fit in the boat with anyone else. She could feel them staring a hole in her back. Probably making some kind of vacant, yet still a bit menacing face.

When it was her turn with the hat, she made sure to keep her wand out of sight from the rest of the school. She didn't want that kind of attention at all. She made her way up to the dais, as Draco had advised her, head held high so that when people looked back to remember her, before they knew she was a Princess, that they would think she was a natural. She thought it all a bit silly, naturally, but it made sense to carry yourself with respect if you wanted to be treated with respect.

She looked up into the eyes of the Headmaster, and was surprised to notice a contemplative air about him while he was looking at her. She looked to the rest of the staff, and only one other was looking at her with a similar expression, a dark-haired man with even darker eyes. Where the Headmaster's blue eyes seemed warm, this man's black eyes seemed cold. 'Permafrost' she thought, while looking directly into his eyes. She wrenched her gaze away, and sat down in the stool. Soon, her vision of the Great Hall became obscured.

A few minutes of silence followed.

She began to fidget, when she heard a voice that was not her own inside her head, _"Royalty belongs in the house for those of great ambition. But what is your ambition, young Princess?"_

_"To do well in school. To not disappoint anyone. To not be lesser to anyone else."_

_"As I thought. But there is also more than brains and cunning in here. No, there is also a fair amount of courage to face the things that scare even the brightest of minds. Death, for one. You have a great fear of it, almost as much as you fear failing. And yet I sense you would put yourself in danger of dying for something that you really believe in."_

She nodded, now that the hat had said it, she knew it was true about herself.

_"Ultimately though, it's where you will do the most good that matters to you. And I think you already know that's not the house where the brave are plentiful. Or the smart. Or even the loyal."_

_"I've read that Slytherin is the house with the most percentage of evil wizards and witches."_

_"Why is that?"_

_"Why are you asking me? I thought you were the all-knowing hat."_

_"I only know what you already know. And a little bit of the founder's magic to help you figure that out."_

_"So, if I go into Ravenclaw or Gryffindor I won't be able to help?"_

_"You happen to think that. Then again, you could be wrong."_

_"You are most vexing for a hat. What use are you really?"_

_"To sort you where you belong. Of course."_

_"Okay, then sort me instead of playing these word games with me."_

_"As you wish, Princess-"_

_"Wait!"_

**"SLYTH-"**

From outside the hat could be seen raising its eyebrows, or whatever passes for eyebrows on a hat.

_"Wait, I can't just go into any one house. If I do that, I'll lose something. But if I choose none... Maybe... Okay. You know what to do."_

**"HOGWARTS."**

Meanwhile, in each and every mind in the Great Hall came the question, 'Can the hat do that?'

A sudden roar swelled up, as people started screaming questions, one over the other. Dumbledore rose and shouted so loud, it reverberated in the farthest person's chest, "SILENCE!"

Immediately, everyone shut their mouths with an audible click. "Now that I have your attention. The sorting will continue as normal. Miss Granger, will you please take a seat up here," The Headmaster summoned a chair, and placed it at the end of the table, next to the dark-haired Professor. "That's right, next to Professor Snape."

She kept up her earlier performance, trying very hard not to blush and stammer apologies to everyone for making a scene. It's not her fault they can't handle a little change and unusual events. It's about time for someone besides her to be flabbergasted.

By all accounts, the Hat had never once refused to sort someone, let alone made a new category just for one person. If she stopped to think about it, maybe it wasn't a new category. Maybe it was the category that the teachers and Headmaster fell under. That was not exactly what she wanted, was it? She wanted to be able to have no house ties, so that she wouldn't be losing some faction to gain another. What was it she had specifically said about her ambition... Oh no. She had asked for it. The Hat had known all along she would never be sorted into Slytherin. It was just messing with her. Or she was messing with herself, she still wasn't sure what measure of sentience the hat was capable of.

Professor Snape looked at her once in a half-interested way. Somewhat like how someone would look at a bug that had lost most of its carapace and legs, but was still dragging itself through the dirt on will alone. She knew it was probably her imagination, but something had sparked in the eyes, that hadn't been there before. And just as quickly as it came, it seemed to run away under that cold darkness as she thought of seeing it.

As the rest of the students were being sorted, she thought back to when she had gotten home with her parents after the events of Diagon Alley. She had still been in shock, somewhere caught half between belief and denial. She had turned to her mum for any information that she had on their heritage. Genealogy, however, was not at all one of her interests or any of the members of their close family. So she couldn't just trace it back to when they said her ancestors had been Wizards. Her parents both said it wasn't possible. She wanted to believe them but... They weren't Wizards themselves. Their expertise was in fixing teeth, not Wizard heraldry. Maybe it was possible that they had been Squibs so long that even the idea of Magic became impossible to them. Maybe she could do something with this new power. The uncertainty was enough to drive her crazy. If she could just count on something being absolutely true, she could work out what to believe. The wand was a fairly good proof. It did only let her touch it. If the wand was from those days, and is a royal relic, then she would most likely be a descendant of the Wizard Royalty.

At that thought, she had begun laughing, and no matter what her parents had said to try to stop her, she just kept laughing harder and harder, until she could only gasp. Tears ran down her face, and her parents had been so exasperated with her that they had left for bed before she had stopped.

Thinking back on it reminded her that she still needed to figure out the genealogy of it all, if only for further proof that she hadn't stepped into a mad world by becoming a witch.

"Malfoy, Draco"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Draco gave her a smug smile at his incredibly short sorting. As if being a foregone conclusion was something of which to be proud. 'Yes,' She thought, 'But I'm next to your Head of House.'

"Potter, Harry"

Professor Snape tensed beside her. She wondered briefly what that meant. Mr. Potter was also a bit of a celebrity, it seemed, as everyone paid an inordinate amount of attention to his sorting, and gave a raucous applause at the Hat's announcement of Gryffindor.

She didn't know what was so special about Harry Potter. Apparently, he had deflected the Killing Curse as a baby. But anyone who believes a baby could do that by themselves, when no one else has been able to figure it out as adults, is daft. Sure it has a sort of dramatic irony, but he was just a baby. There is just no way he had some innate ability to deflect dark curses. There had to be something else to the story; something his mother or father did perhaps?

The rest of the sorting passed by, as name after name became one of the four houses, no more being sorted unusually into Hogwarts.

She found it really weird to eat at the Head Table but persevered, and as soon as dinner was finished, the Headmaster asked her to come up with him to his office. The rest of the staff left to their offices, except for Professor Snape who shadowed them all through the hallways, and through the stone gargoyle, which was the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

Professor Snape leaned casually against the mantle of the huge fireplace. It seemed all fireplaces in the Wizarding World were big enough for a fully grown man to stand in comfortably. The Headmaster gestured her into a much more comfortable chair than the one he had summoned for her in the Great Hall. She sat as soon as he did, and they began a kind of staring contest that lasted until she heard Professor Snape make a sound of displeasure.

"Miss Granger," The Headmaster began solemnly, "I've been informed through a reliable source that you are the long-lost heir of Wizarding Britain's Royal Family. Naturally, there aren't too many Wizard Royals left in the world. Should you be found to be the heir apparent, there will be many more demands on your time than a normal Hogwarts student. I will personally see to it that your schedule remains flexible to accommodate this fact. You will not share dorms with the rest of the student body. You will be in a dorm to yourself, that can only be accessed through this office. You will not be able to bring anyone else into this office, unless you have the password. The gargoyle will take you to your dorm, if you touch your wand to its head. Only you will be able to enter it, besides the staff, of course. Would you like to key the wards to your wand now?"

"Sir, do you actually believe that no one knew the whereabouts of this Royal Family until I showed up? Doesn't that seem unlikely to you?" Hermione asked, trying to make sense of events as they had occurred so far. She heard a strange gasping sound behind her, that she supposed was Professor Snape's laugh. It was short, and seemed unsure if it was painful or happy.

"The wards, Miss Granger?" The Headmaster didn't seem like he thought her Anastasia tale was at all unlikely.

"Yes, sir," Hermione said slowly and deliberately, "That would be smashing."

They exited the office, and went back down the spiral staircase; of course, it was actually helical, but not many people knew or cared. The gargoyle seemed to give them a look at how short a time between going up there, and going down, it had taken them. Hermione placed her wand on the statue as instructed; the appearance of it causing the two behind her to make a surprised sound. The tip of the wand glowed automatically, and the Headmaster and Professor Snape were next to have their wands recognized. As soon as that was done, she just had to tap its head, and the gargoyle leapt out of the way to show a spiral staircase going in the opposite direction.

She stepped forward and it carried her, and her escorts, to the top of the staircase where a door made of Rowan and Ash was waiting for her to open. She looked back and noticed that even the forbidding looking Professor Snape gave her a short nod of reassurance. The door handle was made of platinum and gold decorations that looked like the leaves on a grapevine.

She turned it and opened to a small but well decorated room with several bay windows, though she could have sworn they were near the middle of the castle. There was one very sturdy desk of Ash. The flooring was wood, unlike most of the castle, and it was Acacia, shining to a lustrous sheen. There were several rugs that looked very old but in perfect condition. They were in the various colors of all the Hogwarts houses. The sconces much resembled the door knob, platinum and gold. There were dark brown leather couches, or rather one love seat and a matching couch. The stone walls were covered in beautiful white stucco, with vine leaf patterns in a pleasing pastel green. All in all, it was a cozy room that was very elegant, yet understated.

"This room was designed for the Princess that was born near the start of Hogwarts. She never got to see it, of course, as she was born a squib, and soon after the entire family disappeared. Maybe they hid her because of the shame, maybe they were trying to find some magic to restore her magic powers. No one quite knows what happened after that." The Headmaster intoned. "At the time she was destined to be married to a young boy, maybe three or four years old, of the Prince line. They were a favored branch of the Noble families. She would, of course, have had the chance to make another choice, but they would have been paired more often together at functions, and a bond would have more readily developed."

The Headmaster stopped talking suddenly, and was giving Professor Snape a speculative look. Professor Snape, in turn, was giving him a quelling glare. She found the entire exchange quite funny and laughed appreciatively, until she realized what that speculative look meant. "You can't mean- He's- But I- Headmaster, this is absurd."

"My thoughts exactly, Miss Granger." Professor Snape very nearly growled.

"Don't be so serious, you two. I was only going to suggest that Professor Snape be your faculty adviser, since you were very nearly sorted Slytherin. The additional benefit of him being the closest living member of your family's most trusted advisers was only a passing thought. It's not like I expect you two to become formally engaged." The Headmaster tutted, as he pulled a schedule from his robes.

"You will be going to classes with Slytherins the first week, Hufflepuff the second, Gryffindor the third, Ravenclaw the fourth, and so on in that order. You will take your exams separately with the teacher who administers the test." The Headmaster smiled, "Goodnight, Miss Granger."

Professor Snape stayed back to talk rule enforcement. "Naturally, we cannot take or give points to a house for anything you do. However, you will be subject to detentions and other rules just the same. If I find out you were involved in anything outside the school rules, I will make sure you are punished accordingly," Professor Snape smiled in a truly mean looking way, "Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"Crystal, sir." Hermione smiled, "Like Veritaserum."

Professor Snape made an acknowledging nod at her perspicacity. "See you, on time, for Potions, Miss Granger. If I have cause to notice your presence sooner, I will not be happy."

He swept out like a great bat, leaving her to stumble into her bedroom. She was positively exhausted from all that had been said and done so far. She peeled herself free of her student robes, and climbed into bed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**The Royal Scam**

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**Usual disclaimers apply. I also wanted to thank my reviewers and those who Favorited and followed this story. This chapter is dedicated to you guys.**

******Now beta'd by Bluefirefly5.**

******Thank you for making this early chapter legible Blue, it looked like it had gone through a wood chipper before you beta'd it. So, hugs and cookies to you. Can you guys believe that English is her second language? I know, she's amazing. You should thank her as well.**

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The first class that morning was double potions with Slytherins and Gryffindors. Hermione made her way down to the dungeons anxiously after breakfast, which she was instructed to eat with the Slytherins. The only friendly face among them had been Draco; he hadn't told the rest of the Slytherins about her for his own reasons. Hermione found it odd that so many of them would be so witless as to automatically dismiss a Muggleborn as having value. Weren't they supposed to be cunning?

Draco strode at her side, his lackeys dragging their knuckles behind them. He was telling her something about his family estate, something about pure white peacocks. "It must be lovely to have such opulence that you can afford albino animals to strut around on your grounds."

Draco was quick to agree; she wanted to sigh but settled for groaning internally, and soon he began to tell her of his own wing of the house. "I'll take you there someday, Princess. Maybe our family can host a ball for you, when you come out."

She gave him a small smile; he was trying to be supportive in his own Draco Malfoy way. "That day may be fairly far off Draco," Hermione shook her head sadly, "And to think how I will miss seeing your Grand Estate."

"You won't have to miss it, Hermione. You will see it, I promise on the Malfoy name." He did a small bow, and Hermione saw Pansy giving her the evil glare. Hermione only smiled at Pansy; she knew what Pansy knew, and that was Hermione had something Draco wants and Pansy doesn't. Hermione knew that would be true as long as he thought he could set himself up as her most trusted, or even her betrothed if he could charm her enough. But, at twelve herself, she could only see his juvenile attempts at courting her as all fairly amusing.

If Pansy wanted Draco, she was more than welcome to try to get him to see her like he saw Hermione. That would be tough considering Pansy was from a third string family like the Parkinsons. The Greengrasses were higher than that. Or, at least, that's what Draco had whispered about the girl during Breakfast, when Pansy had been attempting to meld with his arm.

Even though Hermione knew Draco was only being friendly with her for one of his or his father's plans... She was glad to have someone that would talk to her. It was pretty pathetic but she had been so afraid that no one would be friends with her and she'd be all alone. She'd not had much luck making friends before in her experience. Even the other "gifted" children thought she was strange in her advanced placement classes. And then with the way she had been gawked at by Weasley and some of the other children... It was just good that Draco didn't think she was too strange.

"Hermione, come on. Next to me." Draco signaled her over into a seat.

She sat down, somewhat sheepish about having spaced out like that. Thankfully, no one was paying any particular interest to her, as they were almost all staring at Harry Potter. Just as she was about to open her mouth to tell them off for being rude, Professor Snape came barreling in like a bat out of hell.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

The class was thoroughly in his thrall, silent as the grave as he began taking roll. He briefly stopped on Hermione's name but seemed to think better of saying anything more. However, Harry Potter was not so lucky.

"Mr. Potter. Our new celebrity."

Harry looked shocked that he was being called out in particular.

"Me, sir?"

"No, I meant the other Mr. Potter in this class. Maybe he could answer what I would get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked particularly confused. Hadn't he read the coursebooks before coming here? Hermione was about to raise her hand, when Draco put his on top of hers to stop her. She looked briefly at him, but he only smirked and shook his head no.

"Let's try again, Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Again Harry looked somewhat dim-witted, but then again most of the class seemed just as stumped. Hermione was shaking in her seat trying not to raise her hand.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkswood and wolfsbane?"

Harry by now just looked angry that he was being asked so many things he didn't know the answer to, when the Professor clearly knew that he didn't. Hermione had meanwhile stuck her fingers under her legs to keep from raising her hand.

"Miss Granger, cease vibrating and instruct Mr. Potter since you seem to have come to class already knowing everything." The Professor's words and tone were both bitingly acerbic, but she was just glad to be called on.

"Sorry, Harry, but asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkswood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite."

After that, Professor Snape took points off of Harry for not being prepared in class, although he had insinuated knowing the answers was also a bad thing. And then, they had been instructed on how to make a boil-cure potion. She wondered briefly if it could also be used to treat cystic acne since they were very similar abscesses. She resolved to ask Professor Snape that after she had completed her potion.

Soon enough the rest of the class was gone, with Draco waiting for her outside the door. She approached Professor Snape deliberately. Showing weakness in front of a caged wild animal was never wise.

"I had a question about the boil-cure potion that I didn't see covered in the book," Hermione said confidently.

Professor Snape merely waved his hand for her to continue.

"I wondered if boil-cure potion worked on many kinds of abscesses or just one specific kind. In other words would it also work on cystic acne?"

Professor Snape looked up, and again he seemed half-interested in her, maybe like a particularly troubling math problem that just refused to be solved. "Well, well. Something the Know-it-all doesn't know. To answer your question, yes, it does. But not on regular acne which there is a separate potion for that Madam Pompfrey can administer if your acne is severe. It's too troubling for me to brew it for every single pimple-faced pubescent nightmare. Perhaps I will teach you how to brew it yourself. Just don't tell anyone else you know how, they'll never leave you be."

"Thank you, sir. I only hope that won't be necessary."

"Good day, Miss Granger."

She left quietly after that and had to endure endless questioning from Draco about what "Uncle Severus" had been talking with her about. Eventually, she gave in and told him in excruciatingly boring detail, until he begged her to stop and apologized for even asking.

* * *

Classes went exceedingly well that first week, up until flying lessons. She didn't see why they had to have them, when by far a witch or wizard would use floo or apparition for transportation. Flying was mostly an archaic tradition used for some ridiculous sport. She didn't get much support for this opinion from Draco, unsurprisingly; he considered any chance to show off your wealth to be a good one, whether it was through having several wings on your estate, or through having the newest, top-of-the-line racing broom.

There had been a tension about him for the past several days; apparently, not everyone found his friendship with the misfit mudblood without a house to be kosher. She was at first upset that their comments had gotten to him. Even now she could hear one teasing her from the other side of the table; she had to sit at the very end. Draco, and his cronies, sat around her like a shield. In the end, she felt less like a warrior princess and more like the bubble boy. Which, by the way, had the least sensible end to a movie she had ever seen. You can't just ride off into the sunset on a horse when you are that immuno-compromised.

But now, she knew that the comments had gotten to him because he thought very highly of her. If he hadn't been, she knew he would have been the first to give her up to the sharks, so to speak. "I suppose I have no choice then. If I don't go, I will probably be expelled."

Draco scoffed, "Hermione, don't overreact. It's just flying, how bad could it be?"

Hermione looked over at him with censure, "Don't say that! Anytime someone says 'how bad could it be?' do you know what happens? Something really bad. It's in all the books you know."

"You are a strange girl. I hope you know how long-suffering I am just to be friends with you." Draco got up and Crabbe and Goyle followed suit, like they had only one nervous system between the three of them. So maybe his thinking highly of her was just hopeful enthusiasm on her part.

Outside on the Quidditch Field, there were rows upon rows of brooms that looked like they were bought sometime during the last World War. She emphatically did not want to take her chances riding something like that around above the ground. Unfortunately, she had no choice in the matter as it was a mandatory class.

She looked around and she noticed a few faces that seemed to be having quite similar thoughts.

"Good afternoon class!" Madam Hooch eyes looked as if they had flashed gold in the mid-afternoon sunlight. She appeared more than a little magical than most. For instance, Professor McGonagall projected the aura of a proper schoolmarm until she turned herself into a cat.

"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch." They all said, following the script known to everyone who has attended a single class. It was almost eerie, really.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson. Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of their broomstick. Come on now, hurry up. Stick your right hand over the broom and say, Up!"

Hermione raised a trembling hand over her broom and looked briefly to Draco, who gave her an almost genuine encouraging smile. He was already holding his, and so a touch of his usual smugness was rubbed off on to what would have otherwise been very touching, for him. "Up!"

The broom shook and rolled over.

Weasley's hit him square in the face, which was not funny at all, thank you very much. Harry Potter, of course, had finally found something he could do without having to do any hard work or crack a book.

After several increasingly frantic sounding cries of up, she just picked it up because she wasn't about to have an existential crisis over a bloody broom.

"Now, once you've got hold of your broom, I want you to mount it. And grip it tight, you don't want to be sliding off the end," Madam Hooch waited for the class to do as instructed, "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your broom steady, hover for a moment, and then lean forward slightly and touch back down. On my whistle...3...2..."

The whistle blew and they all kicked off, and kept the brooms hovering a few inches above the ground. All except for Neville. His scared face told Hermione that he was most assuredly not in control of his broom.

"Madame Hooch, do something! Neville could get hurt!" Hermione shouted without thinking of the impropriety of speaking to a teacher that way. Neville was her friend in a way, seeing him get hurt would have been more horrible than being reprimanded by a teacher.

The rest of the student were shouting at Neville like he was doing this on purpose. And to her chagrin, so was Madam Hooch who really should have known the horton-keitch braking charm. Hermione landed and leveled her wand at Neville's broom. She executed the charm perfectly, as if she had done it a hundred times before, which wasn't too far from the truth as she had been preparing for the worst with regards to this particular class. The broom stopped jerking wildly and shuddered slowly back to the ground, where a shaking with fear Neville hopped off and ran out of the class, probably crying.

Madame Hooch began to berate her for "using a charm she doesn't know the first thing about", obviously covering up for the fact that it was Madam Hooch who didn't know that charm. She insisted on taking Hermione to her faculty adviser, that being Professor Snape, and cautioned the rest of them to stay put until she came back.

Hermione walked begrudgingly behind her, only stopping to pick up something Neville must have dropped while being bucked around by a flying death trap. She pocketed it, only briefly noticing it glowing red.

She saw behind her Draco taunting Harry Potter about being a better rider than him, but she didn't much care. If this incompetent teacher wanted to leave children unsupervised, far be it for Hermione to argue with the 'adult'.

* * *

Professor Snape's office was next to his classroom, which was convenient if you were either a Slytherin, or just coming from his class. By the time Hermione got down to it, being rushed down there by Madam Hooch, she had been all but spanked in the halls. Naturally, she was more than a little brassed off that she was being told off for saving Neville's life with a spell she both knew how to use, and had used successfully before using it on a broom with a rider. To add insult to injury, Professor Snape was not in his office as he was teaching a class, so Madam Hooch had her write him a note telling him about how wrong she had been and instructed her to wait in his office with the note until office hours; who knew when that would be.

As soon as Madam Hooch left, she changed the note, it was magical ink, to read what had really happened that afternoon; including Madam Hooch's inept handling of the events and jurisdiction regarding players in the events. In general, it read very matter-of-fact and was to the point.

Little did she know that at that time, Harry Potter was being rewarded for breaking school rules to beat Draco Malfoy, where she was being punished for simply bending them. She would also have to remember to give Neville's Remembrall back. She wondered why it wasn't always red. Surely they didn't mean to imply that humans usually had access to all their memories. That was just... she didn't have a word exactly for what that was but once she did, that would definitely be of more use than this toy.

Several long and tedious hours later, Professor Snape finally entered his office with a bang. "Granger! What are you doing in my office? Who let you in?"

"Madam Hooch, sir. She told me to give you this." Hermione handed over the note and watched anxiously as he read it. She noticed alarmingly that his scowl deepened steadily until at the bottom, where he let out an unmistakable growl.

"Of course this means I am meant to punish you, while Saint Potter gets handed a quidditch position for being an ignoramus. Bloody injustice."

She looked at him questioningly, not sure if she was in fact being punished or if that was what he was only expected to do.

"I'm not punishing you, Granger. You will however serve one 'detention' with me, where I actually do something that doesn't waste both of our time entirely." He waited for her to put the dots together.

"The acne cure potion." She whispered.

"Right in one," He replied, "Based on your technical skill with the Boil-cure potion you might be able to learn to make this one as per the instructions. Tell me, Miss Granger, how do you think a potion should be brewed?"

She felt certain this was a test of some kind, a pass or failure she would never recover from if she answered incorrectly. "The obvious answer... would be right... but not for the right reasons. Am I warm, sir? There is the known way and... the unknown. The known way will give you reliable results. But the unknown can go sorely wrong or lead to improvement in the formula. It's like the science of school versus science as it's being discovered."

Professor Snape leaned back and looked for all the world as if he was actually considering her answer. "Aside from the fishing for hints that was more indicative of your mind being not entirely regimental as your potion's work would imply. You'll find that a mind like yours will often be looked upon as not following the rules, even when it's only looking for the best solution to a tricky problem. Nurture that instinct, Miss Granger."

She had begun to think they were no longer speaking about potions, or even about her infringement of rules today. He was actually taking his adviser role, the royal one, seriously. She thought maybe it was for the best that he was going to take her side, as she would have found it very unpleasant to work against him. He seemed very much like the kind of man that, when he did something scary and impressive, you said 'I'm glad he's on our side'.

She nodded and said shakily, "I will do that, sir."

"Is there anything else on your mind, Miss Granger?" He asked, now sounding terribly bored.

She cocked her head and asked, "Did Harry Potter really get rewarded for breaking rules today?"

Professor Snape groaned, "No, he's of course been put in detention for a week for disobeying a teacher and reckless behaviour. _Officially_. But he's going to be serving that time with the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, training for the _seeker_ position." There was some unexplained note of bitterness in the word seeker.

"How is anyone supposed to respect and follow the rules with consequences like that?" Hermione asked, not thinking of how she so casually questioned a teacher's right to punish or not punish as she saw fit.

"My thoughts exactly, Miss Granger. But when it's her cubs versus my snakes... Obviously they, especially Harry Potter, can do no wrong. In any case, I've kept you long enough for Hooch to think I was berating you until your ears started bleeding. Go down to dinner. And do try not to say anything of this, even to my godson, Draco."

She nodded and left. If all he wanted in return for his skills and expertise was her confidence, she would gladly give it. As the door snicked closed, she thought for certain she heard him laugh softly; it was sad and half-formed, dying as it came to life. She shook the cobwebs from her head and passed that thought off as impossible. There was no way she could have heard that sound come from that man.

* * *

Dinner became a rather tense affair when Draco decided, against her better judgement, that teasing Harry about getting in trouble with Professor McGonagall was at all the right thing to do. Of course, she couldn't say why she thought it was so stupid, the fact being that Harry hadn't gotten in trouble at all. Of course, that didn't seem to matter at all to Harry Potter who acted affronted that he was being teased for something that was not even a real thing. Why he couldn't just let it go, since he was going to come off smelling fresh as a daisy as soon as he was announced to be the next seeker, was well beyond her.

"Draco, just listen to me, this is pointless."

Draco turned briefly from his glaring match with Harry, "Nobody asked you, Hermione."

Harry then got mad that she was being spoken to like that by Draco, "I thought she was your friend, Malfoy. Funny way of showing it, yelling at her like that."

"When I need your help making friends, Potter, I'll- who am I kidding? I wouldn't ask you for help with that if you were the last wizard on earth. That's it. I challenge you to a Wizards' Duel on Hermione's honor."

"My honor is just fine Draco, what are you doing?" Hermione tried to get him to back down, but it was useless with these two stubborn prats.

To her horror, Harry accepted. Did he not realize that continually breaking school rules was not going to endear him to the Professors... that he might actually get expelled?

"I'd name Hermione as my second but she can't defend her own honor, so Crabbe will have to do."

"Excuse me, why is Crabbe better capable of defending my so-called honor than me?"

Draco finally turned to her to explain, "It's not that I don't think you are a capable witch, Hermione. It's just the rules, whoever has their honor questioned can't defend it. I didn't mean to imply anything by it."

"How was my honor questioned in the first place, Draco?"

Draco angrily pointed at a fairly confused looking Harry, "That one implied you were so desperate for friendship you would put up with abuse from me than to suffer it alone. It's not proper for one with his status to imply someone of yours is lacking in prospects."

"Well, he doesn't know that, does he?" Hermione asked, trying to get Draco to see reason.

She swore that she could see the beginnings of a pout on his face. Was this how he wheedled his father and mother into things? "It doesn't matter that he doesn't know. He disrespected you. Plus, I don't like him."

"Where were these Wizards' Duels before, from the ones who disrespected me in your own house? What about just now, Draco, when you didn't listen to my council? Should I have someone challenge you to a Wizards' Duel for my honor? Your 'Uncle Severus' perhaps?"

He turned on the look, begging, "Please, Princess? I need to punish him for you."

She smiled; he would come to know this smile as a very bad thing, "Okay, Draco... Since it means that much you. Only I have one stipulation."

"Anything, what?" He asked, too eager to think about what it could be.

"You do it with teacher supervision. Professor Snape or Professor Flitwick are both two good choices."

He sighed; she had guessed correctly that he was going to do it somewhere he shouldn't, at a time he really shouldn't. "I agree to that. I will make the arrangements with Professor Snape."

By now Harry looked completely lost, as far as he knew Hermione Granger was an ordinary Muggleborn witch. He had no idea why Draco Malfoy of all people was friends with her or her with him for that matter, or why Malfoy had called her 'Princess'.

"I'm guessing your second is Ron Weasley?" Harry nodded to Draco's question. "Good. He also disrespected Hermione, and for that he will pay."

Hermione shook her head at Draco fondly. He could be such a drama queen sometimes, okay most of the time. She rightly assumed that it was a matter of the apple not falling far from the tree. She wondered how much of this was actually about her and not about his little tiff with Harry Potter. She would of course tell Professor Snape to expect Draco to ask about a formal Wizards' Duel. That way, even if he decided to go through with his original plan, it would only be Professor Snape catching him out of bounds. When Draco flounced off back to the Slytherin table before a teacher had to come over, she told the Great Saint Potter one thing, "You are an idiot for escalating when a tactical retreat would only make you look better once the chips fall from your stunt this afternoon. I hope you are happy."

Harry Potter reacted typically to being insulted, even when the insult was completely accurate about his person, and mouthed off, "I see what he sees in you. You both have to be rude for no reason."

Hermione tossed her head in disgust. There really was no point trying to talk sense into a rock. "I'd study some defensive and offensive spells if I were you. Professor Snape would hate if you both were wasting his time with what amounts to hair-pulling."

Getting the last word, she walked over and sat down next to her 'knight-in-shining armor', the armor being his thick skull. She hoped she would get to be there when Professor Snape handed them both their- well, that was best left unthought.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer goes here. It says the exact same thing as the one in the first chapter. *Jedi Mind Trick***

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**The Royal Flush**

* * *

The Great Hall was abuzz with talk of the upcoming dueling event scheduled for that very evening. It had been one week since Draco had challenged Harry Potter to a duel. He told her non stop about how useless Crabbe was and she had suggested the one other Slytherin in the house that hadn't yet insulted her, as far as she knew, Blaise Zabini. The dark-skinned boy wasn't exactly talking to her but he wasn't yelling profanities either which was a plus in her books. And she had quite a few books. By now she had been taking classes with the Hufflepuffs for a few days and they were a breath of fresh air compared to Slytherin house. Their table was always bright with laughter. All the jokes were good-natured, none were demeaning. She had made acquaintances with everyone all ready. Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott had been especially kind to her.

"Who do you want to win, Hermione?" Hannah asked.

She looked toward the blond girl and answered honestly, "Professor Snape. No offense to Draco or Harry but I hope they both learn a valuable lesson from this. And their match isn't about the skill of dueling but their petty rivalry."

"I hope that Professor Sprout is the one who wins of the teachers." Susan proclaimed.

"Isn't that a little too easy? Everyone's going to vote for their Head of House to win." Hermione interjected.

Hannah nodded, agreeing with her readily. "Just because that is so that doesn't mean that we won't still root for her. She is tougher than she looks, Hermione."

Hermione smiled, saying, "I have no doubt, she is a Badger."

The girls laughed with her in agreement.

Susan leaned forward conspiratorially, "Are you going to challenge anyone?"

Hermione looked between them, Hannah wiggling her eyebrows comically and Susan looking earnest with her sparkling hazel eyes. Somehow, teenage hormones most likely, the challenging of duels was turning into a way to "subtly" hint that you liked someone. Draco was about ready to kill the next person that suggested he really just wanted to kiss Harry Potter. She thought that she should tell them who she was thinking of challenging but she didn't want them to take it the wrong way. She was just twelve for goodness sake!

She felt her face heat up at just the thought of it, "No!"

She had meant to say that casually but Susan and Hannah weren't buying it. They teased her for a few minutes but let it go. Thankfully, she'd hate to have to explain who she'd been blushing about and why. How absurd.

She finished dinner, but not as fast as some people, and all the students got up as the tables moved together to make a stage in the center of the hall. Headmaster Dumbledore was smiling widely as he announced, "Welcome students to the first annual Duel Masters of Hogwarts event! We will go from first years up after a brief demonstration by Professors Snape and Flitwick on proper dueling procedure. Only spells from the approved list will be counted towards your score. Any from the disallowed list will get you dismissed. Professor Snape, Professor Flitwick, are you ready?"

The two men struck fierce dueling poses in response.

Professor Snape dueled almost lazily. No expansive gestures or complicated spells. No energy wasted. He seemed to duck and weave just enough for the spells to miss. Professor Flitwick was completely the opposite, he positively blurred on the dueling floor. His spells were usually pretty intricate and flashy. By the end of it both had worked up a sheen of sweat, more so Professor Flitwick. Suddenly, Professor Snape was down and Hermione didn't even see what spell had caught him. Flitwick released it immediately as the duel was officially over. He walked over and shook Professor Snape's hand, smiling quite broadly as he did. "Well done, Severus. You almost had me quite a few times, you tricky scoundrel. I should like to see how you duel in a real competition some day."

If that was the both of them just playing, what would those two be like on the battlefield? She was again glad to count Severus Snape as a potential ally. And now she hoped to add Professor Flitwick as well.

Harry and Draco were next. Ron stood on the sidelines next to Harry and Blaise did the same for Draco. Crabbe and Goyle were both standing with some other Slytherin first years, scowling. Apparently they didn't like being usurped by Zabini.

The match was over fairly quickly as neither of them could dodge the others spells very well. Draco finally cast a spell that caused Harry to speak very strangely at a summoned snake and while he was distracted by it Draco went in for the finishing move which was stupefy. He almost couldn't land it at all because of his shaking legs from Harry's earlier Jelly Legs curse. It was determined that Draco had won the match and so he was awarded 5 points to Slytherin. Neither of them had had to use their seconds so Ron toddled off after a fuming Harry while Draco and Blaise made their way over to prance about her.

"My only regret is that I only got to wipe the floor with one of them, Hermione." Draco gloated.

Blaise coughed behind his hand, "It was looking pretty shaky for you, Draco."

Draco scowled, well it came over looking more like a pout. "That's easy for you to say. You were warming the bench for me."

"Now, now, boys. Think of the points you won for Slytherin. Not who was shaking like a leaf on the wind." Hermione joined in on teasing Draco. It was pretty fun to rile him up.

"Just wait until my father hears about this!" Draco said storming off. Probably to write to his father. Blaise and Hermione shared a laugh together at his expense.

Hermione blushed, she wasn't quite sure what to say to Zabini without Draco around as a buffer. Blaise didn't fool around though and got straight to the point. "I've seen your wand, it's not a fake. That must be why Draco is doing his best to impress you. He's putting a lot of stock in your potential use to him and his family in the future. Myself, I'm still not sure. I want to wait to see whether you have more than the lineage to back you up."

She cocked her head, "I have to impress you?"

He smiled coldly, "Essentially, yes, you have to do something impressive to win me over as an ally."

She felt a little like she was playing a game where she had to have a certain number of points in "Impressiveness" to win over allies to win the game. And maybe so, this was a game. She just hoped she didn't get the bad ending.

* * *

Several weeks later.

Malfoy Manor.

Lucius Malfoy closed the latest missive from his son, Draco. From the sound of it, Draco had become quite the friend to the Granger girl. In fact, Lucius suspected Draco genuinely liked her. It would hurt more this way if Lucius had to switch his plans with regards to the girl, and his old master. Lucius knew he must still be out there, he held the truth of it on his left forearm. Narcissa was waiting beside him to read the letter. He handed it to her, smiling gently at his lovely wife. She had been sick off and on lately and he was worried for her. She brightened up considerably when she read Draco's letters.

After a few minutes she looked up into his eyes, "Do you think they might be persuaded to make a love match? It would be a boon for our family."

Lucius shook his head slowly, "It's too early to tell, my love, Draco does seem to speak of her often and highly so there may still be hope."

Narcissa smiled her gentle smile, "That would be a very pleasing match indeed. Our families ties and her legitimate power. Not even the Wizengamot would be able to touch us."

"That is my hope. Failing that if they become close allies like Severus and I... Certainly he will be able to influence her like I have Severus."

Narcissa's eyes darkened, "Speaking of Severus, have you spoken with him about this? Has he written to you?"

Lucius considered that for a moment. "Now that you mention it, no he hasn't spoken of it at all. Do you think he knows?"

"Undoubtedly. He always knows. He has gotten too ensconced there at Hogwarts. We must invite him here more often."

Lucius gave her an indulgent grin, "Of course, you must plan one of your galas."

"It's good to keep the house elves busy, " Narcissa spoke lightly.

Lucius would do whatever was best for his family. Even if it meant marrying in a girl that was about as far from pureblood as you could get. Squibblood. There was a moment he wondered if many squibs had done this and so that's where Mudbloods got their magic. No thought whatsoever that magic could legitimately come from non-magic parents. Even though it was a known fact that non-magical kids could be born to magical parents.

* * *

At Halloween, Professor Flitwick was teaching them the levitating spell in Charms class. Flitwick was telling the story of Wizard Baruffio who wound up with a buffalo on his chest from not enunciating properly. After that horror story he told them to try and levitate a harmless feather.

"Now, remember class to swish and flick!"

Hermione had been practicing her economy of movement since seeing Professor Snape in action. He had taken all of the other Heads of House down. He'd then lost to Headmaster Dumbledore, but it was a close match. The Slytherins had been walking on clouds ever since. She was in their group again after a quiet week with the Ravenclaws and a migraine inducing week with the Gryffindors before that.

The Ravenclaws had barely made the effort to say hello, most were by that point absorbed in their studies. She had found it quite enjoyable but she suspected it would have been much worse without Draco occasionally coming over to speak with her. The Gryffindors were quite exuberant for their turn to entertain her, especially Ron Weasley's twin brothers. She found them a bit better than Ron himself, especially when they told her of the time they had tricked "Wonniekins" by changing his teddy into a spider.

Now she had already successfully levitated her feather, Ron Weasley still hadn't got it. She was the first one in the class to get it right. "It's Wingardium Levi-O-sa, not Levio-SA."

He gave her a dirty look which she ignored, she was only trying to help. Why did he have to be such a prat? Draco was smirking at him for her while showing off his own levitating feather. Harry Potter got it soon enough, he had actually listened to her even though he hadn't looked like it.

After class she heard Ron teasing her, "It's no wonder the only people who will be friends with her are gigantic twats themselves."

She became so angry she rushed past them blinking tears. She was soon caught up to by Draco who stopped her in the halls.

"Don't listen to him, Hermione. Weasley is insignificant. You and I, we will own the world someday. The most he can hope to own someday is his own clothes, not hand me downs."

"I- I was just trying to help." She was embarrassed to hear the hitch in her voice. She tried turning away from him, Draco Malfoy didn't need to see her like this.

"I know that and you know that. What does it matter if he doesn't get it? It's his loss, I say. You have nothing to feel bad about." Draco had walked around to continue speaking with her, "These tears are wasted on the likes of him. Let's get you washed up and then I'll walk you to the Feast."

She nodded, "It just made me so angry when he insulted you. He doesn't even really know you."

Draco looked shocked, "You mean, you got this upset because he was insulting me?"

She smiled through her tears, "Silly, huh?"

Draco took her hand, "Princess, you defending me could never be considered silly." He kissed it and she thought it was okay. She felt a little bit better, even though she knew it was nothing. She was beginning to believe that Draco and her were really and truly friends.

After washing up in the girl's bathroom she met Draco outside. He was stock still and she wondered what had made him so frightened. She looked down the hall to see a mountain troll dragging its hammer down the hall. She began backing up, pulling an almost frozen Draco along behind her. The troll roared, Draco squeaked, Hermione shuddered. She didn't want to become that trolls meal, what did the books say about trolls? Something about sunlight.

They were impervious to spells. She was beginning to panic as it lumbered its way closer to them, outpacing her and Draco. What were they going to do? She couldn't stun it...

Suddenly, she had an idea. What if she used its own weapon against it? "Be my second, Draco?"

He looked at her like she was quite possibly mad. "You can't take on that thing!"

"Do you see anyone else around to help us? We have to," She said and struck a dueling pose at the lumbering beast, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The trolls club lifted straight out of his grip and just as quickly dropped on his dumbfounded looking head, knocking it unconscious. She turned to an equally dumbfounded looking Draco, "Now, we go inform the teachers."

Said teachers turned the corner just in time to hear her say that. "Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, where were you? Are you two alright?" Professor McGonagall asked with concern. Professor Snape was walking with a limp, she saw something had made his leg into a chew toy. And running down the hall from the opposite direction came Harry and Ron, presumably to warn her of the troll. "Mister Potter, Mister Weasley! I thought I told you both to go to your dorm. 50 points from Gryffindor for reckless behaviour."

Hermione spoke up, not feeling the need to cover for those two, "Draco was helping me feel better about an insensitive comment made by a classmate when that troll appeared as he was about to walk me to the Great Hall. What's happening Professor? Why are there trolls in Hogwarts?"

Professor Snape raised his eyebrows, "A question we'd all like the answer to, Miss Granger." He used some sort of spell that wrapped up the troll in thick vines and spoke quickly to Professor McGonagall, "I'll just dispose of this, shall I?"

The humongous troll floated harmlessly behind the limping Potions Master. Hermione wondered how strong you had to be to lift a troll with your magic. Harry and Ron were whispering to themselves and she caught a few words, "Snape" "limping" "three-headed dog" "guarding" "vault". She wondered what they were up to, being so secretive.

McGonagall looked between the retreating troll and Hermione. "What did you do to the troll, Miss Granger?"

She smiled wide, "I used a spell I had learned today in Charms class to levitate the club and drop it back down on his head... Or her head, it wasn't really clear."

"Good thinking," the tartan wearing Professor spoke, "If only I could award you house points I would."

"Maybe if you award them to Hogwarts we'll get a fifth hourglass." Hermione said brightly.

"Don't be absurd. That would never- You know, it might just knowing what's happened around you so far... It's better that I don't."

They were all escorted back to their rooms. Hermione and Draco were allowed to call up dinner in theirs this one time to make up for missing the feast. All in all, aside from almost getting eaten by a troll, it was a good day.

* * *

The Professor's have her sit in their box for the Quidditch Match, which she wasn't exactly interested in to begin with. She ended up sitting next to Professor Snape who began quite the sniping match with Professor McGonagall on Hermione's other side. Professor Quirrell sat below her. His turban was taking up most of the view anyway, so she just warmed her hands on the jar of bluebell flames and listened to some truly innovative insults pass back and forth over her head. At some point something Professor Snape said actually caused her to hiss like a cat. Hermione can't help but laugh, and she can't stop laughing even when everyone else was focused on something interesting happening in the game.

Her nerveless fingers caused the bottle to slip and break on the seat next to Quirrell, lighting his robes on fire. He doesn't notice so she had to jump on his robes, knocking him out of his chair to put the flames out.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter climbed back onto his broom to the relief of everyone actually paying attention to the game.

"I'm so sorry, Professor Quirrell. Your robes were on fire, it's my fault. I dropped my jar of flames on accident and it caught them alight."

For a moment she saw rage in his eyes but the next he was the picture of timidity. "It's n-no problem, Miss Granger. B-be more c-careful next time."

Professor Snape looked to her with a calculating expression, "We will speak of your accident later, Miss Granger. Follow me to my office after the game."

Soon enough, Harry caught the snitch. He actually was an exceptional flyer from what occasional snatches of the game she had seen. "Of course, sir." Hermione said with far more grace than she had been showing previously. Professor Snape cleared up the glass with a simple wave of his wand.

He waved his arm out for her to precede him down the steps out of the Pitch. She nodded, somewhat quizzical of what he would say about her lighting Quirrell's robes on fire. Would he take back his offer to be her adviser? She began to worry that she had disappointed him.

* * *

She was in a right state by the time she got inside his office. He soon warded the door much more securely than he had done previously. She wondered what he would possibly need that many wards to say.

He elected to stay standing, or pacing would be more accurate to say. He didn't stop pacing as he said, "Today, you interrupted Quirrell laying a jinx on Harry Potter's broom. Can you tell me, Miss Granger, what motive would Professor Quirrell have to kill Harry Potter?"

She knew he knew the answer but he wanted to see what she would make of it. So she reviewed the facts. Professor Quirrell had just come back from a trip to Albania after which he was then posted as DADA professor where he had previously been the Muggle studies professor. There was some speculation that the DADA position was cursed. The evidence was high for that as she had checked, for the past twenty years or so had seen no DADA professor be the same two years in a row. Several had come to bad or suspicious ends. Some had simply been bad or suspicious themselves. But what personal motive could Professor Quirrell have... that wasn't as easily gathered.

"He's not a former Death Eater?" Hermione asked.

Professor Snape smiled grimly, "Not according to my sources."

She thought about the man himself. His mannerisms and the clothes he wore. "Has he always been this timid and stuttering? What of the turban?"

"Good thinking. Both are changes he has undergone since the trip. Do you find them suspicious, Miss Granger?" He asked patiently. He wasn't the kind to tell you what you should know. He wanted her to be able to think for herself and was training her in rationality. In some ways, she was training him.

She thought of the trip to Albania. What if this was in fact a ruse? What proof did they have besides his word that he got the turban as a gift from an African Prince. "This, his past year, doesn't add up, too much is left up to the faith of the listener that his word is true," She looked up into the dark, cold eyes of Professor Snape, "Does Dumbledore already suspect him? Is this all a plot by Dumbledore to draw out Quirrell?"

Professor Snape barked out a laugh and said, "You learn surprisingly quick, Miss Granger. If I didn't know better I would expect a much older and wiser person was inhabiting your body." Something about the way he said that struck her as significant.

She wondered, could Professor Quirrell be under the control of someone? No, it was too horrible to think. "Do you think Professor Quirrell is being puppeteered in some way? Magical or otherwise."

He inspected her again, seeming to study her for something she didn't quite understand. "I think it's a possibility. I do wonder, just what is under that turban besides his bald head, don't you?"

She noticed then he hadn't answered her directly about the Headmaster pulling strings above Quirrell's own strings. So, he did know. There was some plan and Harry Potter was supposed to just fall right into it. An eleven year old boy, made into bait for an adult's game. Even Professor Snape had to feel a little sorrow for it. At least she hoped he did. "Harry can't know right? I'm meant to walk out of this office and not tell him of the plan to use him to catch Quirrell."

Professor Snape only nodded, his face completely expressionless. "Oh, and Miss Granger? Do try not to have so much eye contact in the future with the DADA professor. That goes for any of them, they are usually shady characters in one way or another."

She looked into his dead looking eyes and he seemed to pass through her, reading her thoughts as if they were written on her face, "The same goes for me, Miss Granger. You shouldn't trust anyone so much. Not even Headmaster Dumbledore."

It shook her worldview to the core, not trust Albus Dumbledore, why ever not? She already knew that everyone distrusted Professor Snape, maybe that was all the more reason to give him the benefit of the doubt. "You shouldn't trust anyone complicit in using eleven year olds as bait. Anyone who espouses a 'for the greater good' ideology is usually to be feared and mistrusted at the very least as much as a murderer."

His eyes were so empty by this point she had to look away to avoid crying for his loss. But he wouldn't understand why she would cry for him. He didn't have it left in him to understand why someone would cry for the loss of such a basic thing as hope. "I'll keep that in mind, Professor. If that is all I should like to go to dinner in the Great Hall."

He merely waved her off like a minor nuisance. She escaped without him seeing the tears building in her eyes. As the door closed behind her with such finality she felt the tears fall. She let them fall. She wouldn't wipe them from her face as if she was ashamed. She could do that much.

* * *

**A/N: If anyone wishes to beta read for me, I am taking applications via PM. Previous experience beta-reading or writing your own stories with proper grammar would be ideal.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. If you don't, well I still can't nor want to accept money for writing this fanfic.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**The Royal Imposition**

* * *

Christmas at the Granger household was a casual affair. Hermione received floss and a bottle of alcohol free mouthwash in her stockings, somewhat unusual for any other house but the Granger's. There were no presents under the tree addressed from Santa and never have been. There were presents from Mum and Dad however. And from Mum or Dad separately. She got several new books on chemistry, her favourite subject in school prior to becoming a witch. From Mum, who was smiling brightly as she opened each one carefully. She never did like to tear into her presents, always preferring to carefully preserve the paper in as pristine a condition as possible.

Before she left for Break she had broken up a tense fight between Draco and Harry, yet once more having to be a voice of reason for those bull-headed fools. Draco had started it, of course. She had no illusions that he was an angel. But Harry Potter was becoming quite the distraction that she just didn't need. Every time she saw his dumb, gullible face she wanted to punch it for making her feel guilty. She knew the Headmaster's plan was the best one they had so she wouldn't tell Harry Potter... And it was killing her not to blurt it out in his presence.

Dad gave her lots of new clothes. Winter scarves in nice, neutral colors. Several wool sweaters to match. Winter socks and a pair of winter boots in her new size. He liked to dress her up more than Mum did. He would always talk about how proud he was of his "smart, beautiful daughter". She would always protest that she wasn't really either of those things. To which he would reply, "Nonsense." He'd also gotten her a large poster of the periodic table of the elements. Now including various states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma, bose-einstein condensate, neutron-degenerate matter, and quark-gluon plasmas).

All the gifts were practical but she was so happy to be with her parent's again that she didn't mind.

"Now, listen well young lady. I don't want to see you getting behind on proper subjects while studying this new knowledge you have found in magic. It's just as important to learn science and maths as it is to learn transfiguration and potions. Perhaps it's even more important as you will be well educated in both worlds, how many of your classmates will be able to say that?"

Her mum had almost become a PhD in chemistry before she had chosen Dentistry and Hermione's father. They had kept up to date, the both of them, as John Granger loved Physics almost equally to Jean Granger's love of Chemistry. It was always a friendly rivalry in the Granger household of which was the better field of study. So it was of no surprise to Hermione that they would want her to study twice as much as everyone else. They still did, the both of them were just now studying for their PhDs in their respective fields now that Hermione had gone away to Hogwarts.

"Yes, mum. I wouldn't dream of letting my studies go by the wayside." It really did no good to argue that there simply weren't enough hours in the day for both. For all she knew there would be a way that she could magically make sure that she would have enough time.

"So, tell us about this Draco boy, " John Granger asked semi-gruffly, "Is he the one who tried to grab your wand?"

She had written to them about how he had quickly befriended her and smoothed the way for her to make other new friends. She hadn't told them about the troll, of course, she wanted to be able to stay there and learn. Even if it was a dangerous place, it was worth it. "Yes, but he was really nice after that."

"Too nice if you ask me, " John began only to be interrupted by Jean.

"Relax, love, I'm sure Draco hardly has designs on Hermione at his age."

Hermione couldn't stop herself from blushing a deep red. "Even if he did Dad, I am learning spells day by day to help me defend myself against unwanted advances. Which I'm sure he wouldn't try even if he could. He's not a bad boy at all."

"Enough of this talk of boys around your Father, Hermione, you know how he gets." Jean winked to let her know they could talk without her Father anytime she wished. "I have some other things for you upstairs in your bathroom, Hermione. I'd like you to pack them in your trunk, just in case. We are also going into Diagon Alley before you leave to get some things only witches can use."

Hermione was now regretting coming home if it was to be this mortified.

Later on, before she was to be asleep in bed, her Mum came into her room for "the talk". Of course, in this household she had had little mini talks all throughout her childhood. But this one was about some seriously icky things to consider.

"Since I may not see you when you get your first menses... I thought it best we talk it out here at Christmas break. I wasn't much older than you when I got mine so I wanted to prepare you ahead of time. It's okay if you aren't expecting it and you have an "accident" shall we say. I want you to be prepared so you can start by using the liners daily. That way your clothes won't have to suffer too much. I also don't want you pulling a John Granger and refusing your medication. If they have something for it, ask for it Hermione. If they don't, well the 'Muggle' method works too and you are covered on that end. Don't feel bad if you don't get it soon, that's also perfectly normal. Just, keep in touch, okay? I want to know if you are doing well in more than just academics young lady."

Hermione nodded, what would she do without her Mum? Just the perfect mix of practical and loving. "I love you, Mum."

Hermione's Mum wrapped her up immediately in her arms and said, "Oh, I love you more, my Hermione."

Dad knocked on the door and was soon on her other side, hugging them both. "Love you, princess."

She had the best parent's in her opinion. It didn't matter in that moment that they could never understand what it felt like to be magical on a fundamental level. Right then she felt they were more magical than she could ever hope of being.

* * *

Back in Hogwarts once again, she was this time armed to the teeth with feminine knowledge. She was researching in the Library, reading about alchemy in actuality, when she overheard Harry, Ron, and Neville discussing a man named Nicholas Flamel. It appeared to her that Neville had joined those two idiots. He seemed to be the brains of that operation, although it was really hard to tell. She smiled, knowing her book spoke at length about Nicholas Flamel... They were so far off. But, she guessed that Flamel had something to do with Dumbledore's trap. In fact, they had worked together, Flamel and Dumbledore, if she remembered correctly. Alchemy, as detailed in the very book she was reading.

"Do you three need help finding something?" She whispered.

Ron glowered, he still hadn't got over the fact that she was a friend of someone he didn't like. What a bigot. "No one asked you to butt in."

She threw up her hands in surrender and said calmly, "I really do not wish to fight... Only I couldn't help but overhear you talking about Nicholas Flamel. He's quite fascinating. I was reading about him just now."

Harry perked up at that and made his way over to her table. She had something he wanted. He'd play nice. Neville also got up, leaving just Ron behind looking like a land bound fish.

"What did you read about him, Hermione?" Neville asked pleasantly.

"Oh, nothing particular interesting... Except that he is the only known owner of the Philosopher's Stone. Which is rumored to grant immortality, turn any metal into gold, and a whole list of other things. You know, the usual fairy tale story. Of course the Stone can't possibly do all that. No potion or enchanted object does more than one thing. Are you looking to know something about that sort of thing, Harry?"

Harry nodded, "The immortality in particular."

She wondered why Harry Potter would have a particular interest in immortality. "Well, it's said he is just now celebrating his 665th birthday with his wife, Perenelle."

Harry squinted significantly and spoke as if she wasn't there, "He-who-must-not-be-named would want that, wouldn't he?"

"Probably, if he were alive. Do you think he survived, Harry?"

Harry made to rub his scar but then thought better of it and gripped his knees with their frayed jeans covering them. "I know he is. I can feel him."

She narrowed her own eyes significantly this time. "If that is so. Why now? Do you think he is already at Hogwarts? Masquerading as a teacher, perhaps?"

Harry shook his head no. "He can't be here, Hermione, someone would have seen him. He's somewhere nearby. I think Snape might be helping him. They are both after the Stone."

Hermione personally thought Harry was crazy to suspect Snape. But then again, Harry didn't know what she did about Quirrell.

"We saw him cursing Harry's broom last match." Ron interjected, finally joining them.

At first she thought they had read her mind about Quirrell, but then she realized they were implicating Snape. Just as Snape had implicated Quirrell. Now, who to believe? Snape or Quirrell. Snape had the more consistent back story. If he really was evil, he would have been so all this time. Why would he strike now?

"Hmm, you may have a point, Harry. What has he done besides that to make you suspect him?" She needed to know what they knew now and it would do no good to yell about how wrong they were to suspect Professor Snape.

Harry looked both angry and embarrassed as he recounted his first time meeting eyes with Snape had caused his scar to hurt, the scar he got as a baby when he defeated Voldemort. He told of Snape's general nastiness to him, which Hermione knew was a fact. He told her of the three-headed dog hiding something on the third floor corridor. He told her of seeing Snape's limp which meant he had been skulking around there.

"Who was on Professor Snape's other side, besides me Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Well, Professor Quirrell, Hermione, but I don't see how that matters." Harry looked very confused, it seemed to be a recurring theme with him.

"And when the troll broke in, who was at the table and who informed everyone of a troll that could have only gotten there if an adult witch or wizard put it there, Harry?"

He shook his head angrily, "I don't see how that matters but all the teachers were in attendance besides Professor Quirrell.. when... Professor Quirrell told everyone that... Oh bollocks... It's not Snape, is it?"

Hermione shrugged, "It still could be, but there is just as good of a chance that it is actually Professor Quirrell. So, basically, it's one or the other. My bet is on Quirrell."

Ron angrily says, "My bet is still on the Greasy Bat. You're on, ten galleons."

Draco appeared, "Do you even have that much, Weasley? I'd hate for you to have to become dear Hermione's indentured servant. She is still angry with you for being such a prat to her."

Ron glowered. Harry had jumped up and was immediately pointing his wand at a completely alone Draco Malfoy.

She sighed, "Oh, here we go. I'm just going to leave if you two can't act civilly."

"Tell Potter that, he's the one pulling a wand on me."

She leveled her best glare at Harry and Draco in turn, "I'm telling you both. Leave off, now."

To her surprise, Harry Potter put his wand away. "Sorry, Hermione. That was rude of me. And after I'd just gotten your help on a very important project."

He was ruffling his hair and grinning apologetically. She wasn't fooled for a second. Boys. Maybe she could convince her body to be a lesbian before she got into puberty. That was a cheery thought. Mind over sexual preference.

"Draco, did you come to make sure I ate dinner?" She asked nicely. She could see Ron making a gagging motion out of the corner of her eye.

Draco nodded and gestured for her to precede him. It was almost as smooth as Professor Snape's. Was Professor Snape a pure-blood, too? She didn't think so with how they talked about the Prince line in reference to him. Probably half-blood then.

She smiled back at Harry and Neville, "It was nice speaking with the both of you. We will have to do so again sometime." Draco was getting impatient, she could tell. "Okay, okay, I'm coming. It pays to be polite sometimes, Draco."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm plenty polite. I have the breeding to show for it."

She giggled and said slowly, "Right."

They both walked away from the three Gryffindors, for once not having it escalate until a teacher had to break them up. She counted that as a major victory. Perhaps, with time, she could get even the most entrenched of enemies to forget their differences and become friends. She'd have better luck getting pigs to fly. Which, now that she thought of it, probably wasn't that hard to do with magic... or airplanes.

* * *

"I will be refereeing the next match Potter will be participating in," Professor Snape began at their now weekly meeting, "Perhaps with me on the field, Quirrell will be less likely to make a move against Potter."

"I'm sure Harry will be so pleased to hear you are taking his safety so seriously, Professor." Hermione snarked. She was beginning to get the hang of it with such an experienced teacher.

"I will gag you, Miss Granger," He threatened idly, "Personally, I doubt Quirrell will make the same move twice, he doesn't seem the type. Who does Potter suspect is behind the irregular events?"

Hermione spoke frankly, "You, of course, though he also is beginning to suspect it could be Quirrell as well. He also has some odd belief that Voldemort is still alive and haunting him."

Professor Snape hissed and clutched his left forearm when she said Voldemort's name. "I will forgive you this once, Miss Granger, but do not use the Dark Lords name in my presence again." He was angry with her. Meetings in which he was angry with her rarely went well.

She bowed her head gracefully, "I apologize. Which euphemism would you have me use?"

"Watch your cheek, girl. Any will do that's not that which you just said." Professor Snape said in a growling tone.

"If I'm forgiven I should like to discuss that theory with you. If it's alright with you." She plied him with a semi-intelligent discourse.

He merely waved her on. It was universal Snape-language for "continue quickly or you'll bore me".

She smiled with excitement and spoke, "Here's the summation. Apparently, Mr. Potter can 'feel' the Dark Lord through his scar. He's convinced you also work or have worked for him. Of course, Dumbledore would never employ former death eaters. Right?"

The only expression Snape could be said to have was a glint in his eye and that could just as easily be a trick of the light. "If I said Dumbledore would employ death eaters for a greater plot of his... What would you think, Miss Granger? Would you consider him reckless or shrewd?"

"Neither. Both. I'd think that he has to know a few popular phrases. Hindsight is twenty/twenty and even the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. At some point you have to take on risky deals but you absolutely do not make your risky deal the lynch pin of some greater plan. My thought is if he has made a tool of this Death Eater turned spy... he'd leave it as only a tool. And if he is as wise as everyone claims he would make the spy seem essential while all the while giving it the most marginal role... and the least trust."

Again, Professor Snape was studying her closely. "Astute, Miss Granger. What is it that is said of seeing your own issues from another's perspective... in doing so making it all too clear?"

Hermione had read about this in a Psychological Journal her parent's had lying around. "The egocentric bias, Professor. It's a way of getting past that. That's why the people in most need of help are the ones least likely to ask for it. They are too busy seeing themselves how they think others see them but it's really just a negative self-perception."

Professor Snape snorted, "I suppose there is some measure of truth in the muggle sciences to be found."

Hermione noticed he had drifted, no longer looking at her or anything in particular. "What of chemistry, Professor Snape? Do you think there may be some opportunity for crossover research between Potions and Chemistry? From what I read on alchemy it's the last time the two fields intersected."

He snapped back into focus, "I should hope not. I don't think I could keep the school from turning to rubble if I had to teach a modified by chemistry potions class to most all of your classmates. Do you think they would have any idea what a bose-einstein condensate is or why it's important? Particularly why it could be so important to the application of potions?"

Hermione answered honestly, "No, but maybe if there was some school of higher learning past Hogwarts... I still don't get why there isn't by the way."

"Low overall population, even lower of which are suited to higher learning. It's better served with private research and master/apprenticeship roles. Though, if one were to be started for the Wizarding population of the entire world... It would be quite the Mecca... Until of course it was ruined with people who considered it a matter of prestige to simply graduate from there."

"Fair point," Hermione conceded, "But surely a university could collect those bright enough for research for collaborations that would be far greater in scope than individual projects. Far better than the current research magazines on various subjects. Which rarely cross fields."

Shockingly, Professor Snape didn't disagree. "To your original point, I'd find a chemistry and potions comparison and analysis worth some of my time in the future. Even if I'm doing something... marginal."

Hermione smiled brightly, this was exactly how she wished all of her teacher's would treat her. They only gave her top marks, they didn't talk with her like a semi-equal but like an especially bright puppy. It was so frustrating now to talk with any of the other teachers that she mostly didn't bother, Professor Snape had no difficulty talking with her about all the other subjects at Hogwarts anyway.

* * *

Hermione minded her business and let Harry Potter and his motley crew figure out the plan on their own, if they could. If they couldn't they would probably still go rushing into danger anyway and work to Dumbledore's favor. Only, she worried that they were missing something fundamental in their group and yet she could not pinpoint what was supposed to be there when it obviously wasn't there.

"Hermione," Harry called her over to sit next to the three Gryffindor boys. "I overheard a really interesting conversation while out on my broom at the game."

She looked around before casting Muffliato. It wasn't that Professor Snape had taught her that but you catch things if you are around him. Like a knowledge virus. "Go ahead."

"Well, it was after the match. Snape was meeting with Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest. Snape kept insinuating he knew what Quirrell was up to... Quirrell was acting peculiar, not like his normal self at all. There are also other things guarding the stone. Possibly enchantments that one or the two of them have to get through to reach it and steal it. Quirrell was being threatened to not make an enemy of Snape so I doubt they are working together. One of them is evil not both of them."

"It's Professor Snape, Harry. But I see your point. It looks like one of them will make their move fairly soon, once they figure out the other things... you don't think? Maybe each teacher did something with regards to their specialty to guard the stone. Or maybe just some of the teachers? I don't see how a muggle studies teacher would contribute to guarding a mythical item. Hmm... I might have to subtly ask around."

"You'd do that for me, Hermione? After everything with Ron and the troll incident. I'm still so angry with myself. If you hadn't been prepared to defend yourself... Ron and I would have gotten there too late. We'd have had your's and Draco's dead bodies on our conscience. I had a nightmare about it, you know. I imagined you had died. Bloody. It was horrible. Ron had to shake me awake to stop the screaming."

Hermione looked at him, he was being completely serious... that was the strange part. He cared about her because he wanted to save her and was afraid of the eventuality that he wouldn't save her. "It's not your fault, or even that pillock Ron's fault. It was whoever let that troll in's fault. No one else. Harry, I'm not defenseless. We both have a wand and magic. And sentient brains. So let's not pull that "what if I can't save you and you get hurt" argument out. It's the twentieth century, approaching the twenty first. If anyone gets hurt it's all on the aggressor, not on the victim or the victims friends with hero complexes. I'm sorry for being harsh, Harry, but it's a fact that you can't deny anymore. Stop putting the world in the "to be saved" box. Let's figure this out together."

Once Hermione spelled it out like that Harry seemed to take a step back internally, checking his worldview against the facts as she had presented them. Finally he came out of his stupor with a sheepish smile. "That was selfish of me, wasn't it? I shouldn't expect you to see yourself as someone to be saved by me. You don't see me that way, do you?"

She shook her head no, "If I thought you could be saved, I'd do it. But, no, you're well and truly buggered, Harry. It was nice knowing you."

"Hey! Quit taking the piss! We were having a moment there." He sulked quite extravagantly in her opinion.

She cancelled the Muffliato spell, which she kept expecting to give her a Muffaletta, in time to hear Ron end his rant about the Chudley Cannons that he was engaging in with Neville. Neville, for the most part, looked entirely unamused about some third rate Quidditch team. Then again, Neville liked flying about as much as she did, which is to say not at all.

* * *

By the next week Hermione learned that Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Professor Quirrell, and Professor Sprout all had various challenges set up. Professor Snape told her on the condition that she "keep Potter from killing himself". A lofty goal to be sure.

She needn't have bothered, of course, because Hagrid told them everything. The half-giant was incapable of keeping a secret. Except she knew something Hagrid and the boys didn't. There was absolutely no way Quirrell could get the Stone. They put it into the Mirror. Only to be retrieved by someone who wouldn't want to use it. It was a training course for Harry not a trap at all for Quirrell. They were grooming him for some greater purpose. Beyond beating Dark Lords as an infant.

Also, the three of them got into some trouble, along with Draco, and were going into the forbidden forest to serve a detention with Hagrid. She was honestly a little worried for them if the Headmaster thought it was perfectly sane to have an eleven year old take on all manner of hazards to retrieve a stone that was just Quirrell/Dark Lord bait. Quirrellord? No, that sounded entirely too silly.

Perhaps, Headmaster Dumbledore was right not to trust Professor Snape. Considering how much he had told her not in so many words. He was surprisingly good at hinting at the truth until you got it yourself. She suspected there was no secret keeping charm invented that could hold him. If he was misleading her on the other hand, the Headmaster should probably either be holding the strings and/or still not trust him. At least Hagrid and Professor Snape had told them both the same people. So that checked out. All that was left to do was watch and wait to see who made the first move, if Quirrell then she would help Harry as Professor Snape had instructed. If Snape, go directly to Headmaster Dumbledore.

Oh no, her first year wasn't too complicated at all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Not my IP. I just play with it.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**The Royal Tenenbaums**

* * *

Exams went very well indeed, especially with the small amount of coaching she had been able to wring out of a patient Professor Snape. Well, patient for Professor Snape in any case. She had been slightly stressed about them, though she knew she shouldn't be, and he had told her flat out that her first year exams didn't count for anything in the grand scheme of things. They weren't even kept on record. As soon as they all passed they were thrown out. Or burned merrily if Professor Snape was to be believed. She liked to imagine him throwing them into a bonfire with the other teachers and dancing gaily with Headmaster Dumbledore.

She was predictably over-prepared for the exams themselves. She had also taken on extra reading about Occlumency based on an idle comment made by Professor Snape. Her usually very expressive faced was now merely calmly curious. She had been practicing the exercises to help keep her head her own secret domain but they had yet to work against even Professor Snape. Though she suspected he was testing her quite vigorously. Then again, it had only been a month since she had picked up the text. Surely no one could expect a twelve year old to learn Occlumency in that short of time. Then again, Professor Snape might just expect that very thing.

Harry was becoming quite panicked about the Stone and was convinced Snape or Quirrell would run off with it if he didn't personally do something about it. As much as she didn't envy his position, she wished he wouldn't embrace his hero-complex so readily. She almost thought he would find not being the hero to be terribly weird and boring. Like, if he woke up one morning to be predestined to be an accountant, not the Boy-Who-Lived. He wouldn't know what to do with himself, if the world had its own affairs in order, and didn't need someone to come swooping in. Oh, he protested his hero status all the time but had no qualms with taking on the responsibility of saving adults from other adults.

Apparently Hagrid had told a stranger in the pub, presumably Snape or Quirrell, about Fluffy's weak spot for softly playing music. Harry had immediately ran off to find Professor Dumbledore. She rushed to check both Quirrell's and Snape's offices and classrooms. Neither were in. She realized suddenly that she didn't have an eventuality planned out if both were still suspects by this point. She wanted very strongly in that moment to not have to choose which teacher to trust. Her hind-brain instinctively thought Snape, he made the more imposing figure. His very voice seemed like liquid evil. Her higher functions didn't trust Quirrell. He had a serious consistency problem and stuff just kept not adding up where he was concerned.

She went with some combination of the two. She would find Harry and tell him, he was always willing to make these kind of choices. That way she could not feel guilty for not trusting someone who had been if not kind to her, at the very least illuminating.

She ran into Harry, Ron, and Neville on the way up from Professor Snape's office. "Neither of them are accountable. What of Professor Dumbledore?" She asked.

The boys all shook their head's in the negative. Harry spoke, "Ministry of Magic, Urgent Owl. London." He seemed a bit out of breath but she got the gist. "It's tonight. Whoever's stealing the Stone is going through the trapdoor tonight. They've found out everything they need, and now they've got Dumbledore out of the way. They sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will be shocked when Dumbledore turns up."

"But what can we-"

Hermione gasped so quickly she nearly fainted. He was standing there, Professor Snape.

The boys all turned around to see what had shocked her so.

"Good afternoon," he spoke smoothly, devilishly slow.

She was at once glad and suspicious. He looked over her and as his eyes passed over hers her walls slammed down completely for the first time in his presence. She had no time to feel proud about that as he was now smirking at them all. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this,"

"We were-" Harry began to try to explain something but Professor Snape interrupted him as if he hadn't said a thing.

"You want to be more careful," Professor Snape said while trying to bore his way into her mind, "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something."

He smiled viciously and it both ruined and made his face strangely intriguing, "Gryffindor can scarce afford to lose any more points, don't you agree?"

At the end of his threat he focused his piercing gaze on Harry instead. Harry who was completely without any mental barriers like she had... For their sake she hoped he wasn't the one working for Voldemort.

The boys began to walk back outside, but Professor Snape called them back. She was rooted to the spot as if she had ice in her veins.

"Be warned, Potter. Any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

He gave her a significant look before he strode off in the direction of the staff room.

What did that look mean? Was she supposed to make sure Harry "saves" the Stone or stays in? She had no way of knowing.

"I think it's obvious you should watch him, Hermione." Harry volunteered her for Snape watch.

"If he really is as evil as all that he might just kill me or worse for following him." Hermione found Harry's plans to be pretty ill-conceived as a general rule. "Let's just wait until nightfall. He seemed to hint that it would probably happen then. And it makes sense that it would given the lack of people prowling the corridors."

"There's no way we are all fitting under the Cloak." Ron interjected helpfully, for once.

Neville spoke up, finally recovering from the close encounter of a Snape-ish kind, "That's okay, I'm not going. I'd probably not be of any help. I'd get petrified if I had to see Snape even more evil."

"Don't be silly, Neville." Hermione smiled encouragingly, "You are plenty brave enough to help these two. And more importantly you have two brain cells to rub together."

Ron immediately took offense, "Hey! I have two brain cells too!"

Draco scoffed while appearing out of nowhere, "I'm glad you are finally admitting your abnormality, Weasley."

She began to wonder how he did that, just appear when Weasley had stuck his foot in it. It was very clearly a magical power. Or he had been watching her. But that was a paranoid thought.

"Hermione, a word away from the Gryffindors." Draco said leading her away.

After they had almost made it back to the Snape's office, Draco stopped. "You can't tell me you are thinking of running off with those nitwits?" He asked without turning to face her.

Hermione sighed, this was going to be hard to explain. "I have to do it. I promised someone."

"Who? Potter?" Draco turned around scowling. He sounded jealous.

"No. Someone important." She said without irony. "I don't expect you to understand why. I barely understand myself. Just... Let me go, Draco." The both of them didn't see Professor Snape lurking around the corner, listening in on their conversation.

He shook his head uncomprehendingly. "Hermione, you don't have to do there is some other way of keeping your promise."

"There isn't," Hermione said exasperatedly, "The one person who could help is either behind it all in some ridiculous Xanatos Gambit. Or is getting fooled by one of two possible suspects. Either way I have to go with what I think is the best solution."

"If it's what you want, I can't stop you. But I honestly think you should reevaluate the importance of keeping this promise."

She smiled, "I have. But it's no use, Draco. I can't do that to this person. To disappoint them would be crushing."

Draco looked as upset with her as he had ever did and said, "On your head be it. I'll be happy to write to you when you are expelled. I can't imagine them being able to snap your wand, so at least you'll have that."

* * *

Sometime well after dinner she received a letter by owl from Harry, informing her to be ready and waiting outside the gargoyle at a particular time. It was a very short trip between there and where Fluffy resided and the Stone. She wrote back a quick confirmation after giving Hedwig a treat. A mere hour after letting Hedwig out of her window she was ready for adventure. She had on one of her Christmas sweaters from Dad, it was a light green with interspersed golden threads. She also had on the boots. It was so much easier to sprain your ankle when wearing regular mary-janes than when wearing boots.

As soon as she made it past the gargoyle she was pulled under a cloak to meet the smiling faces of Ron and Harry. She gave them a timid smile in return. They began a rather short trek to the third floor corridor, although she suspected much more had happened on the way to get her.

By the time they got to the door it was already ajar. They all knew what that meant. They shared a look between the three of them, it was pressing upon them the gravity of the situation.

"Well, there you are," Harry spoke quietly, "He's already got past Fluffy. Whoever he is. No time now to worry about that." Harry paused as if to let that sink in. "If you want to go back, I won't blame you, " he said, "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

"This is not the time to be treating us like... daft puppies, Harry. We're coming with you," Hermione spoke clearly but quietly.

"Yeah, mate. Don't be thick. You know I have your back," said Ron.

Harry pushed open the door.

In the silence of the castle at night the sound of the creaking door made her shiver, especially when it was joined by a low rumbling growl. Fluffy's noses, all three of them, worked madly to pinpoint their location even though the beast couldn't see them it knew they were there.

She saw a harp at its feet that one of the two must have left in their haste to get to the Stone. Harry soon began playing, seeing that Fluffy was waking up. Harry played pretty tunelessly she had to admit. Her piano lessons had her cringing at how badly Harry played. It hardly seemed to matter to Fluffy as it briefly tottered on its paws and fell to the floor, fast asleep.

"Keep playing," Ron warned Harry as if he would think to stop with that monster in the room. They all slipped out of the cloak and crept towards the trapdoor. Ron soon had the trapdoor open and gestured gallantly for her to go first. It was then that Draco appeared at the door. "I'll go ahead of my lady, Weasley."

All three of them were shocked, Hermione included, that Draco would risk expulsion to help his friend. "I don't see why you all are so shocked. My father is on the Board, they can hardly expel me. Anyway, Geronimo!" Draco landed at the bottom with a soft thwump. Ron went next, then Hermione, and lastly Harry.

She had landed on something soft. Which was entirely too convenient in her estimation. It was definitely a plant so must be Professor Sprout's contribution.

"We must be miles under the school," she spoke in semi awe.

Draco had pulled her out of the plant as soon as she had landed it seemed. "Devil's Snare. Very dangerous. You two might want to extricate yourselves if you can."

Of course they were well and truly snared.

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, Malfoy, that's a great help," Ron snarled struggling against getting choked by the plant.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered, "It'll only grip you faster."

Draco wasn't saying anything by this point, seemingly content to watch Harry and Ron have the life choked out of them by a murderous plant. He flicked his wrist casually and said with boredom, "Lumos."

She remembered at once that Devil's Snare shirked from the light and lit her own wand. Soon with Draco and her wands making light the plant recoiled, letting Harry and Ron pull themselves out.

Neither Harry nor Ron seemed to want to thank Draco for helping them not choke to death. And perhaps that was for the best as he didn't seem to be too happy with himself for doing so. After a tense moment they all kept moving down a stone passageway Harry helpfully pointed out that was the only way forward.

The sound of water dripping took up the space where they would have been talking if they knew what to say. She was glad she had worn the sweater as it had gotten colder the farther down they went.

Soon a soft rustling and clinking sound could be heard up ahead.

Draco took her hand and she felt his own were cold. She didn't find it to be bad, so she let him. Besides, she found it strangely soothing. A light slowly spread ahead until they reached the end of the passageway. A chamber filled with light and a high ceiling was home to small keys that she had at first mistook for bright birds with jewel like wings. On the other side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

Ron soon had Harry running across the room expecting the keys to swoop down and attack. Harry and Ron couldn't budge the door with magic or brute force. Draco scoffed at them both and pointed to the broomsticks.

"Of course," Harry exclaimed, "They are keys! We just have to find the right one and Presto Chango, the door will open."

"Careful about your nonsense words, Potter. You are holding a wand."

They all, except Hermione, got on a broomstick and kicked off into the air. On the ground it was almost beautiful watching the three of them weave and duck through the beautiful clouds of keys. Harry, Ron, and Draco worked surprisingly well together to get the one damaged key in the lock. It must have been used already was the general assumption. It was big, silver, and antique looking like the handle. As soon as it unlocked the door it was released, flapping away rather the worse for wear.

The next room was home to a life-sized chess board. They were on the side of the black chessmen. On the other side were the faceless white chessmen and a door.

Ron smiled, "We have to play chess to get across the board and through the door."

"We? Do you mean-" Hermione began with a note of fear. Wizard chess was brutal, if they had to become the chess pieces someone might get hurt.

"Yes," Ron said finishing her train of thought, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

To make sure Ron walked up to a black knight and placed his hand over the knight's horse's muzzle. The piece sprang to life at his touch, immediately beginning to paw the ground in anticipation.

"Do we- erm- have to join you to get across?"

The knight nodded. Ron turned back to Harry, Draco, and her.

"How are you at chess, Malfoy? I know for a fact Harry's useless, sorry Harry, and I've never seen Hermione play so I can only assume she's not very good. Or hiding a secret talent for it because she's too good for the rest of us."

Hermione emphatically shook her head no, she was terrible at it. And she'd never played with Professor Snape or Draco or any of her other friends. She knew that from being in the gifted class in her old school, she was the bottom of that class at chess skill. She got entirely too attached to her pieces and that was before they almost seemed sentient as with Wizard's chess.

"I'm at 200 ECF." Draco practically preened.

Hermione knew that to be good, very good. Not the absolute best mind, but she knew Ron would find it respectable. Maybe they could find some common ground in Chess?

Ron seemed to twitch, she saw it as him warring with his desire to beat Malfoy at his favourite game and to not have anything to do with him. "I think Harry should take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go next to him instead of that rook. Draco?"

"I'm going to be a knight," Draco proclaimed.

Hermione could tell Ron had really want to be a knight but thought better of it now that Draco wanted to be one. Ron said, "Alright, I'll be the Queen."

Draco only sniggered but it was enough to have Ron glare at him. While those two were glaring daggers at each other the chess pieces moved to make way for all four of them to take their places on the board.

"White plays first. Yes, look! A white pawn just moved forward two." Ron seemed entirely too excited about playing life-sized Wizard's Chess. Ron and Draco began coordinating their moves and strategy. They would talk to each other and then Ron, as the Queen, would direct his troops. The pieces didn't seem to have a problem with that setup and moved obediently wherever Ron indicated.

With Draco and Ron both watching the board they only lost a few pieces, their other knight and some pawns. They soon had a huddle of limp white players slumped along the wall.

Near the end Ron and Draco began to argue.

"Weasley," Draco spoke angrily, "You know it's the only way... I've got to be taken."

Hermione was the only one to shout, "No!"

Ron was still not wanting to command Draco to take the hit so they could win. So Draco had to explain, "You have to sacrifice me, Ron. I'll take one step forward and the White queen will be busy with me while Potter checkmates the king."

"But-"

"Look, Weasley, we don't have all night. Go stop that nebulous evil."

"Draco-" Hermione spoke in pain.

Draco and Ron shared a long, meaningful look before Ron looked away with his eyes shining with tears. Even Harry seemed to be becoming affected by Draco's sacrifice. "I'll stay with you... after. Make sure you get out of here safely," Ron promised.

Draco simply quirked an ironic smile and stepped forward to meet the Queen. Draco was struck hard across the head with her stone arm. She screamed as he fell hard on the stone floor but stayed put in her square. The white queen deposited him on the wall with a collection of black pieces, she didn't know if he was alive or dead.

Harry, shaking, moved three spaces to the left.

And that was it, they had won. She and Harry were the only one's to continue on.

"What if he's-"

"Ron's looking after him. He'll be alright." Harry said semi casually as if trying to convince himself of that fact "What do you reckon is next?"

"Devil's Snare was Professor Sprout. The charmed keys must have been Professor Flitwick. The transfigured chess pieces would be Professor McGonagall. That leave's something of Professor Quirrell's and something of Professor Snape's..."

The next room was filled with a disgusting odor. Hermione pulled her sweater over her mouth and nose to help block the smell and saw Harry doing the same with his robes. Through watering eyes she saw a dead troll, much larger than the one she had defeated, lying cadaverously still in the middle of the floor. Its entire left side of its face was missing. Its left arm was lying bloodily on the opposite side of the room where it left a bloody trail back to its body.

Whoever had come through before them had absolutely ravaged the thing. She shivered at the violence of the act.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that thing," Harry whispered as he led them over its corpse. "Come on, I can't breathe."

"Personally, Harry, I'm more worried about what did that to the troll than the troll itself." Hermione spoke reasonably.

In the next room there was just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line. Nothing extravagant or obviously dangerous. It was more innocuous, nothing like the man himself as he made himself appear to be. She became more and more convinced it was Quirrell as Professor Snape had told her and that she was right to follow her instinct to help Harry as he had asked.

As soon as they had fully entered the room- a fire leapt up in both doorways. Purple behind them and black in front of them. There was no escape, save for whatever was available in the room. She looked around and soon spotted a scroll with words scrawled on it in a spidery script she recognized immediately as Professor Snape's. She read with Harry looking over her shoulder.

**Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,**

**Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,**

**One among us seven will let you move ahead,**

**Another will transport the drinker back instead,**

**Two among our number hold only nettle wine,**

**Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.**

**Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,**

**To help you in your choice, we give these clues four:**

**First, however slyly the poison tries to hide**

**You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;**

**Second, different are those who stand at either end,**

**But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;**

**Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,**

**Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;**

**Fourth, the second left and the second on the right**

**Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.**

Hermione breathed out deeply and smiled brightly at Harry. Who looked utterly confused about why she would be smiling.

"Brilliant," Hermione said still smiling, "This isn't magic- It's logic- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in her forever."

"But so will we, won't we?" Harry asked not knowing that she was being trained in this very thing by the man who had created it.

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry," Hermione spoke slightly tauntingly, "Everything we need is here on this paper. Whoever came through first made a grave error in not burning it on his way out. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one for the black fire, and another for the purple. Of course, there is no telling if they didn't modify the writing on here to trick us into drinking the poison. But I don't think they had time to do that and go through if the potion works as I think it does."

"But how do we know which one to drink?" Harry asked, interrupting her musings.

"I'll tell you which one in a moment."

She read the paper a few more times. Then she walked to the lines of bottles and examined them in turn while muttering the lines in the poem. Finally it all became clear to her and she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire. And on towards the Stone."

Harry looked at the tiny bottle she was pointing to with her index finger. Obviously coming to the conclusion that she had already reached.

"There's only enough to have one of us go on." He spoke quietly.

She pointed to another bottle. "That's the one I'll use to go back to Ron and Draco." It was rounded and at the right end of the line. "I got you here, Harry, the rest is up to you."

Harry nodded, knowing it was the only way besides them both going back.

"You could take a sip with me and just go back. You don't have to be the saviour of the Wizarding World, Harry Potter, you could be an accountant."

"No, you drink it," said Harry sounding resigned, "Go help, Ron get Malfoy out of here. You'll have to fly but I think you'll manage. After getting out, go to the Owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore. We need him. I was reckless not to do so already but now's not the time for that lecture. I'll try to hold off- who do we think it is?"

"Quirrell, with Voldemort in his head under the turban." Hermione spoke matter-of-factly.

"Well if it's Quirrell with a Voldemort tumor than I might get lucky once again."

"Here's hoping!" Hermione said cheerfully.

She gave him a crushing hug on an impulse it seemed. He was mightily embarrassed.

"Harry- Don't do anything this reckless again. I'd hate to have to inform the Headmaster that Harry Potter can't make it to the prophesied battle on account of already being dead."

"Stop! All this mushiness is giving me a cavity." Harry cried.

She let go reluctantly. She really didn't want this boy running off into danger but he had other ideas of his own. "Ick! Don't mention cavities around me, I'm a dentist's daughter!"She gave him one last parting glance before taking her potion, which felt like ice in her veins, and running through the doorway and back to Draco and Ron.

* * *

Later on, she came to visit Harry in the hospital wing, Draco was there as well with quite the concussion so it was a dual visit. It had been touch and go with him so she was relieved to hear both of them had woken up at about the same time. Even Ron was relieved to hear Draco Malfoy wasn't going to be a vegetable the rest of his life.

She pulled her chair between the two of them and let them both speak, whatever they felt like saying she would listen to it. Ron was perched behind her, shuffling his feet.

"Stop shuffling Weasley. You're giving me a headache. I don't blame you, so you can just stop." Draco sniffed delicately and she took his hand, it was cold and very pale.

Hermione teared up, "I'm sorry. If you hadn't have come after me. If you hadn't wanted to protect me."

Draco glared mightily at her but didn't pull his hand away, "You stop too. I definitely don't blame you. And you shouldn't blame yourself either."

She knew, on some level, she always would no matter what he said to the contrary. It was just a part of being a human being. Taking your mistakes hard.

"The Stone's destroyed. The Headmaster just told me," Harry seemed very calm, "It was Quirrell. Just like you said, Hermione. You are a genius, I never would have guessed that on my own."

She blushed, knowing she hadn't guessed it either on her own. "I'm just all book smarts and cleverness, Harry. You have bravery. And courage."

Ron smiled widely, "We make quite the team, don't we? Harry, Hermione, Draco, and myself. Each of us having something the others don't. It's like chess that way. Each of us can move in ways the other's can't. Speaking of which, now that you aren't drooling into your pillow Malfoy, you owe me a match."

"You're on, Weasley! But don't think I will go easy on you because you saved my life."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Ron spoke softly. "I have my pride you know."

Almost in sync, Harry and her sighed as one at the two of them. She was enormously grateful that this was the worst that had happened. If it had actually been Professor Snape she wasn't sure any of them would be alive right now. She finally allowed herself the smile she had foregone earlier at the knowledge that she had blocked Professor Snape from her mind.

"Dumbledore said I couldn't know, not until I was older, why Voldemort would want to kill me in the first place," Harry said, breaking her momentary peace.

"He would say that Harry. And perhaps he is right. I do not know. All I know if there is a reason Voldemort would go after the Stone and there is a reason he would want to kill you and those things are most likely connected." Hermione gave him the same clues Snape had given her.

Harry looked puzzled, "He wants immortality because he's afraid of death and he wants to kill me because... Am I supposed to kill him, Hermione? But I'm just a boy."

Hermione smiled grimly, "You are right now, Harry. But even as an infant something happened that made Voldemort's killing curse rebound off of you and back onto him. Striking him down and killing his body. Some powerful magic protected you then, don't you see? If Voldemort had not tried to kill you he wouldn't have died himself. He set himself up to be taken down. That is the irony. You didn't kill Voldemort Harry, he did."

"That magic, it protected me also when Quirrell tried to kill me. I almost died anyway according to Dumbledore. It must be weakening, whatever it is." Harry sounded very worried that he was losing whatever power he had over a creepy psychopath that he had.

"I'll try to research it for you, Harry. It had to be something your Mother or Father did as they were the only other ones in the house." Hermione supplied.

"That'd be brilliant, Hermione." Harry breathed out gratefully. "Now, you two go out and enjoy the sunshine. Draco and I can keep each other miserable in here without you."

Hermione didn't disagree with that at all, but she had one last person to go and see. His last name rhymed with grape. "You go on, Ron. I have to do something."

Professor Snape was reading in his office when she entered. His dragon hide boots were propped up casually on his desk as he leaned back ever so slightly in his chair. "It appears, Miss Granger has popped round for a visit. What shall it be, Miss Granger? To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She sat down in her usual chair and let out a small sigh before continuing, "It's a burden most cutting to know so much about other people's fates. In that way being responsible for them."

Professor Snape had the tiniest of smiles on his face, "Egocentric bias, Miss Granger. I know you've heard of it. We all do what we think we must. Each of us holds the power to destroy our rebuild any other one of us. Potter must think the same, am I correct? That he alone has some special destiny?"

She nodded, knowing it was so. "In some ways I suspect he does have a special destiny. At the very least I think some people in his life expect it of him. If he decided to return to the muggle world and be an accountant there would probably be mass rioting from the greater Wizarding population."

Professor Snape chuckled, "That would be a day I'd love to see."

She smiled warmly up at him and he caught her eyes. with his own. But her barriers held. She kept smiling, knowing it must be frustrating to him.

"Only twelve years old and already an Occlumens. I worry for the Wizarding world with someone like you poised to take it by storm." His black eyes glinted as he kept boring into her own caramel brown ones, trying to find her weak spots.

"Thank you, Professor. You've opened my eyes this year." She spoke genuinely and deliberately referring to his lack of success so far breaching her Occlumency shields. "I hope for many more years you will consent to being my adviser."

He smiled self-deprecatingly, "As long as I am able... and you are willing. I should find that amenable. Now go, get some sun, girl. You are becoming as pale as I am."

She got up, laughing, "I'm sure that's not possible. Until we meet again, Professor."

* * *

The Great Hall was bedecked in the Slytherin houses colors of green and silver. She sat at their table, next to an almost fully recovered Draco and a somewhat more genial than usual Blaise. Pansy had been booted from the core group to make way for Hermione. Apparently, at some point, the other Slytherins had realized Draco was onto something with being friends with her. It had only taken them an entire year. Word had spread about her wand. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

As soon as Harry walked in, probably just now being released from the infirmary, a hush settled of the four house tables. And then, everyone began talking loudly all at once. Some people were even standing up to look at him as he seemed to shrink in his seat next to Ron.

"Don't envy him that, " Draco spoke almost kindly. "At the very least no one treats people from house Malfoy like a zoo exhibit."

"He's not one?" Blaise snarked.

She laughed, "No, not that I can recall."

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore spoke cheerfully to them all, "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..."

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

The entire Slytherin table broke out in cheers. Draco looked a little sick from the noise but still happy. However, Dumbledore wasn't done talking.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

Why Dumbledore hadn't done this sooner instead of letting Slytherin snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory? It was obviously rather cruel of him. Each and every Slytherin face dimmed in anticipation of whatever would happen next.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes..."

"First- to Mr. Ronald Weasley..."

Her eyes darted across to Ron who was turning purple in the face at Gryffindor table.

"...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has ever seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Blatant favouritism. Draco had been right there beside Ron the whole time, even taking the fall when it was necessary.

It was at that point that she realized Dumbledore wouldn't have enough points to ensure Gryffindor a win without being able to count her.

"Second- Special acknowledgement goes to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire. No points can be given but a plaque has been made in her honor." Here Dumbledore showed off a small but quite shiny plaque to the room.

"Third- to Mr. Harry Potter for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

Gryffindor house was 50 points behind Slytherin now. They were barely in second place.

"Fourth- to Mr. Neville Longbottom for the courage to stand up to his friends. I award him, fifty points."

Neville had challenged them at the last minute. He hadn't wanted them to go into danger. She respected that quite a lot. That last point assignment had tied Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"There are all kinds of loyalty," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of loyalty to face danger for a friend. But just as much, if not more, to face it for an enemy. I therefore afford ten points to Mr. Draco Malfoy for inter house cooperation."

And now it was Gryffindor's turn to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There was a great explosion of cheers and jeers from either side of the hall. With Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff both looking at the each other like, "Why those two houses? We might as well not exist."

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the madness, "Slytherin has now won the House Cup for the eighth year in a row."

Harry looked a bit put out about it but he soon got over it as soon as food was in the offering. Hermione enjoyed the Feast, knowing it would be a few months until she could eat this much sugar. She watched as Professor McGonagall reluctantly shook a smirking Professor Snape's hand. Hermione saw her mouth cattily, "Next year."


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm a disclaimer! I'm a disclaimer! Oh, I'm a disclaimer! I'm a disclaimer!**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**The Royal Pain**

* * *

Over the long summer away from Hogwarts she studied wisely, received mail from all of her Hogwarts friends except Harry Potter, went on a short vacation with her parents, and soaked up the summer heat to store during the Scottish winters. She was outside in the garden, Dad was mowing the lawn while Hermione and Jean Granger set to pulling weeds. The sun was beating down on her back and she felt a simple joy in the hard labor.

"Best in your class, you say? I'm so proud of you, Hermione." Jean said yanking on a particularly stubborn weed.

Hermione turned to her Mum, who was absolutely covered in mud and dirt from the yard work, and smiled brightly. "I know, it was such a surprise to me. I thought I would be so far behind but like you say, 'We live in the kind of society where, in almost all cases, hard work is rewarded.'"

"And I hope you never find out one of those cases where it isn't, Hermione." Jean sighed, rising from the herb garden. "And now I think it's time for a shower and then some lavender lemonade. How does that sound?"

Hermione got up, stretching the crick out of her back. "That sounds superb."

Washed up and a new change of clothes later she sat on the veranda sipping lemonade while watching the sun begin to set. Tomorrow she was going to Diagon Alley, where she would get to see all her friends once more.

* * *

"Harry! Harry! Over here!"

Hermione saw Hagrid leading Harry out of the less reputable side street, Knockturn Alley, from her position on the steps of Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.

"What happened to your glasses?"

Harry looked a right mess, covered in soot from head to toe. Glasses broken at the bridge. She quickly repaired them with the Reparo charm, why he hadn't done that immediately was beyond her when she knew he must know it.

"Thanks, oh this is Hagrid. You two haven't really been introduced yet," Harry seemed to stumble over what he was trying to say, "I saw Malfoy Jr with Malfoy Sr in this spooky shop in the bad side of town. They mentioned you. Something about your ancestry shining through. Draco whined about me to his dad as well. It seems he really wants to be seeker for Slytherin."

"Nice to meet you, Hagrid. It probably just slipped my mind to meet you with the strange newness of coming to Hogwarts."

"It's no problem. Yer welcome anytime ta come ta my hut fer tea and rock cakes. And a bit've a chat o' course."

They were soon joined with what seemed like the entire Weasley clan to Hermione's eyes. She was an only child. Her parents had had one stillborn girl after herself and couldn't bare to try again. She was to have been named Perdita. Perdita Rose Granger. Rose after John Granger's mother and Perdita because A Winter's Tale was Jean Granger's favourite play. As evidenced by Hermione's own name.

She recognized only Ron, Fred, and George. There was also the Weasley patriarch and an older brother. The older brother struck her as a bit high-strung. A different sort entirely from the twins, that was for sure.

She didn't pay much mind to the conversation between them as she scanned the crowds for anyone else that she knew. Draco, Neville, or even Hannah.

She noticed her parent's looking a little lost, waiting for her to introduce them to her friends. She waved them over, only for Mr. Weasley to fawn over them like an especially interesting specimen of nudibranch. She didn't like that at all. If this was a Wizard who loved Muggles she wondered how a Wizard who hated Muggles would treat her parents.

Harry treated Ron and herself to a strawberry and peanut butter ice cream cone and they strolled along the street, catching up on what they had all missed in each other's lives. There was then some very important shopping done. She dragged them into the parchment and ink store and away from the quidditch supplies. She lost them at that point as she had immersed herself in the quill selection and they had escaped to do "fun" things. She would meet them again in Flourish and Blotts so she wasn't worried.

There was an especially nice set that featured elegant engravings on a silver metal with shiny black paint to make them pop. The quill was from a blue heron on the pen with replacements from a wide selection of beautiful feathers. She bought it because she was in need of a better set.

An hour later she showed up at a packed Flourish and Blotts, with a sign proclaiming some big name Wizard author and tackler of Dark Creatures was having a book signing of his new autobiography, Magical Me.

She recognized the name from the school book list in which he had been almost the entire school book list for the one class, DADA. In general, she wasn't one to hate more reading but at some point you had to wonder... why so many books and why all by the same author? Was the new DADA professor getting paid off to feature all of this author's work or was the new teacher the author themselves? Plus, most of the writing seemed to be fluff and narrative and not much on actually defeating the creature in the title in the best way possible.

She noticed a trend in the people gathered, mostly women of all ages. More so of the ones of a certain middle age bracket. They all looked breathless with excitement and she was skeptical that this author could be so much of a draw that they would be right in being so. His writing certainly didn't seem to be all that interesting and the cover photo of him was sickeningly cheesy. In all honesty, he seemed more like a fop than a dangerous Dark Creature fighter.

She wanted to just get in and get out of the bookshop with a few of the books she hadn't yet purchased and read. Which was actually only some personal ones on Occlumency and some on Magical Theory, which she was finding very fascinating light reading in addition to her studies on Special Relativity.

With the effect Lockhart had on the women there you would think he was bathing himself in love potion each morning. Which, come to think of it, may be a strong possibility. People do crazy things to make other's love them. She was having a hard enough time getting the shop girl to stop sighing dramatically and ring her up when she heard Lockhart speak, "...Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

She began her escape soon after, only to bump into Draco at the door. "Not here for an autograph, Hermione?"

She grimaced, "I wouldn't even want to give him an autograph. Let alone the other way around."

Draco soon spotted Harry, but she shook her head to indicate he should leave him alone. "I'll be done in here soon, if you wish to wait for me outside of this din." He pointed on the slightly more open street.

She settled next to the window outside the shop as Draco went up to Harry, Ron, and the Weasley girl who had a name (Winry? Ninny? Prinny?) and struck up a conversation without her. All four seemed pretty uncomfortable about how to interact on a friendly level.

Lucius Malfoy soon joined Draco as Ron was joined by his father and the two dad's began to fight with words. And then with fists. She sighed, some men never grow up. She noticed after Hagrid had broken up the fight that there was an extra book thrust at Ginny (she suspected that was the girl's name) under the one that had seemingly caused the altercation. That was definitely odd. She would have to check that out as soon as possible. Hermione's parents insisted she be taken home after that and so she didn't get to speak any more to Draco or examine the odd book.

* * *

She got her chance to examine it more closely when she found the Weasley's only girl child, Ginevra Weasley, all alone in a compartment writing in it. Hermione knew that Ginny hadn't seen her when on entering the compartment the girl quickly stored the small book in her bag. Ginny was blushing bright red when Hermione asked, "May I sit with you? We didn't get to really get to know each other in Diagon Alley what with all the hubbub. I'm Hermione, a friend of your brother Ron."

"I know who you are, you are also friends with H-harry." Ginny looked pretty anxious.

Every since the Quirrell incident she found stuttering to be suspicious. But she wanted to befriend this girl anyway, to make sure Lucius Malfoy hadn't done anything wrong by giving her that extra book. A diary, she supposed since Ginny was writing in it. She shuddered to think of anyone writing in a normal book. Even in the margins.

"What do you think of Harry Potter? Don't want to kill him, do you?" Hermione asked as a joke while sitting down in the other seat.

Ginny's eyes widened comically. "No! I would never hurt the Boy Who Lived."

"Here's a tip. If you want to be friends with someone. Try not to over aggrandize them. He's just a boy, try to remember that." Hermione saw the classic signs of hero worship in the young girl.

Ginny simply nodded, taking her advice at face value. "What about you, do you want to be _friends_ with Harry?"

"Gods, no!" Hermione laughed. "He's entirely too... Harry Potter. It'd be weird. I have my own goals, I'd hate to look like I was leaching off his fame."

"That's not-" Ginny began getting angry.

"I know you don't feel that way, Ginny. It just might look that way anyway to some simple-minded people. Like, 'oh look it's Harry Potter's girlfriend'! When you have a name and you have your own worth as a person. I just personally don't want to deal with that." Hermione explained calmly. "Queen Elizabeth the first never married because she had that exact same fear. That her husband would become of more worth than her when by rights she should be the leading body of the country."

Ginny merely sighed, "Oh... When you put it that way... It does kinda make sense."

Hermione smiled while leaning back in her seat, "I knew you'd come to see it my way. I'm sure you want to do something... Make something of yourself with all those siblings to try to distinguish yourself from."

Ginny brightened, "I want to be a chaser! For the Holyhead Harpies!"

Great, yet another Quidditch nut! Merlin save her from the Quidditch fans. They were the scourge of the Earth.

* * *

All through the Sorting Feast rumors had been flying around that said Harry and Ron had been expelled for flying a car to Hogwarts, instead of taking the train. So when she saw Harry and Ron looking absolutely flabbergasted as they stood outside the Gryffindor Common rooms, she had to say something.

"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry began to assure her. "I don't suppose you know Gryffindor's new password?"

Hermione sighed, "I overheard that windbag, Percy, telling the First Years it was 'wattlebird'."

"Hey, that's my brother! Only I get to call him a windbag!" Ron looked caught between yelling at her and laughing his arse off so naturally he did both. When he came to he was absolutely crimson in the face and gasping for air.

Of course the portrait had opened while Ron was screaming that and then laughing so the entirety of the Gryffindor house heard him, including his brother Percy. All was silent for a few tense moments before there was a sudden storm of clapping. She got a quick peek at the furnishings before she decided it would be best not to tempt fate by trying to go into a House commons that wasn't her own. Arms reached out through the portrait hole to pull Harry and Ron inside, leaving Hermione to walk back to her empty commons alone. Sure, it was great when you were trying to study but even she gets lonely sometimes. She'd have to just study in that case. She wouldn't be lonely with her companions; Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. She'd already read the Hogwarts books cover to cover three times.

* * *

She had classes and sat down for meals with the Hufflepuffs that first week as she had left off the last week with Slytherins. She walked down to Herbology with Hannah and Susan. Both of whom had gone on Mediterranean vacations and were insisting it was the best thing ever. Especially playing at the beach with the local boys. She noticed a highly aggrieved Professor Sprout walking with a jaunting Professor Lockhart. He had, no kidding, and actual spring in his step. Both the girls beside her sighed upon seeing the great pouf. Just what was it about this hack that caused these girl's to be so irrational. That caused even grown women like Mrs. Weasley to be irrational. In front of her husband no less. Maybe the Weasley's had some kind of one person rule? She shuddered at the thought.

Disregarding the sex lives of her friend's parents in that very moment she avoided going anywhere near the two Professor's and headed to Greenhouse Three as Professor Sprout had instructed while Professor Lockhart was haranguing Harry. They all quietly waited inside until Harry came in and took a seat by Ron. She was sitting between Ron and Susan with Hannah on Susan's other side.

"We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" asked Professor Sprout while standing behind the trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse.

Hermione launched her hand into the hair like a bottle rocket. She was the first to have their hand raised. "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," recited Hermione by memory, "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

"Excellent. The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. However, it is also very dangerous. Can anyone tell me why?"

Hermione restrained herself, knowing she should let the other's have a chance at gaining points since she was effectively an undeclared variable as far as points were concerned. Eventually, Neville raised his hand timidly, "The cry of the Mandrake is f-fatal to anyone who hears it."

"Precisely, Mr. Longbottom, have 10 points for Gryffindor."

The rest of the class goes as per normal with no hiccups. Hufflepuffs separated from the Gryffindors to go to History of Magic, which was taught by a droning ghost that for the most part Hermione didn't pay anymore attention to after she realized he didn't answer any questions or deviate from the text at all. It was a solid hour that she got to read up on texts of personal interest and she used it as such. Having a charmed quill take notes for her on the lecture to make sure he didn't actually deviate from the book while she wasn't paying attention.

* * *

At lunch she was asked by Justin Finch Fletchley how she liked being 'Harry Potter's friend' and she nearly growled. Instead, she said with a note of impatience, "Why don't you ask him how he likes being **MY** friend? Oh right, I forgot that next to the Great Harry Potter any regular muggleborn girl looks boring... no matter how bright and talented she is..."

Justin held up his hands in surrender, "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean it like that."

She smiled brightly, "Of course you didn't mean it like that, Justin. You didn't think at all about me. Just him. And it's pretty normal as friendships go. Thanks for asking."

Susan laughed while playfully punching Justin's arm, "She sure told you."

Justin looked thoroughly ashamed as he sat back down and shut up. The girls then regaled her with more stories of the boy's they had met on vacation and she saw Justin go bright red at the talk. He seemed to be thinking, 'Girls, how do you live with them?'

* * *

After lunch she had Charms. And then Potions after that which, since it was the last class, she stayed after to talk to Professor Snape about the book that had come into Ginny Weasley's possession by Lucius Malfoy.

"You say Lucius slipped the book unnoticed by the rest of those gathered?"

Hermione nodded, "As far as I know, yes, it went unnoticed. It also appears to be a diary. Leather bound and small with a crest on the cover of a serpent."

Professor Snape looked grim, "Lucius is making moves to resurrect the Dark Lord, as he was in his glory days. That book, its a very special former possession of the Dark Lord's. Do you know if she has been writing in it?"

"She has, I saw her on the train with it." Hermione answered truthfully.

Severus Snape sighed and placed his head in his hands. "Of course I can't be involved directly in this as it will hurt my standing with Lucius and I may need him later. I must remain an observer, however... I could help you indirectly."

"Anything at all you could do would be of assistance." Hermione encouraged him to be forthcoming.

He looked up through his dark hair and parted fingers, his eyes like deep unlit caves. "There is one possibility. We let this play out like last year. Helping only where it would go unnoticed. You handled last year's attempt with ease."

Hermione considered it, just let this play out and what? "What of Ginny Weasley? It's one thing to use a stone as bait but a first year girl?"

Professor Snape grimaced, "Headmaster Dumbledore would suggest that the Stone was of more importance to the War than one girl."

"How does he know? Who is he to judge who will prove essential based on such superficial knowledge?" Hermione's voice rose without much thought on her part.

"He has always been the one to make those decisions, Miss Granger, ever since his own War with Gellert Grindelwald. I don't think he knows how to see that his logic comes from a flawed perspective. They have always been right before, you see, with _acceptable_ losses." Professor Snape was pinching the bridge of his nose as if trying to stop himself from having to talk about the Headmaster's failings. "But, he's all we have."

"I refuse to accept that. There are plenty of other wizards and witches that he could at the very least consult with and I'm sitting with one of them," Hermione dared Professor Snape to contest that point with her eyes flashing into his, "Let's give him a taste of what that's like this year. What do you say? What he doesn't know won't kill him, will it?"

Hermione stuck her hand out for him to shake. His much larger and bonier, but not so much wider and meatier like Hagrid's but longer fingered, hand wrapped around hers for a perfunctory shake. "I somehow doubt the two of us could cause Headmaster Dumbledore to die so I accept your proposal, Miss Granger."

"Good, I'd hate to lose your council, Professor. Now, about that diary... anything else I should know?"

Professor Snape leaned back, as if to think, and began strumming idly on his desk. "There is the small matter of it being impervious to most destruction methods. As Lucius has more than once bragged, the Dark Lord is a master of such Dark Arts."

Hermione paused to think herself. The only sound was the slight crackling of the fire in the grate. For a few moments they practiced trying to get through her Occlumency shields. She was a little rusty from the summer but he wasn't being as hard on her as he could be. It was almost playful, the way he tested her shields.

"Of course! The obvious question is what reason the Dark Lord would have to so strongly enchant a simple diary, presumably his own, to be indestructible by most normal methods? What do we know the Dark Lord wants most? But, surely with the Stone gone there is no way for him to come back to flesh and bone... Speaking of which, how was he not immediately killed by the rebounded Killing Spell? Something isn't adding up here."

Professor Snape's dark eyes reflected the fire when he stopped squinting to look at her properly, "Miss Granger, I believe you are onto something." And he smiled, a real smile not darkened by malice.

She was obviously doing the man some good as much as he was doing for her in return. "Yes, I made you think of something this time!"

He was back to scowling at her, "Don't let it go to your bushy, little head. A broken clock is right twice a day."

She smirked, a habit acquired from exposure to smug Slytherins, and said, "You know. Nobody likes a sore loser."

Severus Snape smiled sardonically, "Nobody likes me anyway, I'm not losing much. As to your questions... They do sound like valid avenues of research. Perhaps, the Dark Lord has found someway to bind his soul onto an object, such as the diary, and by so doing get a new 'life'."

Hermione tilted her head in consideration of that, "But how? I've never read of anything like that yet. Granted I haven't yet read everything in the Library but I would think something like that would be mentioned in multiple books."

Professor Snape shook his head no. "It's not in the Library. Unlike you, I have read the entirety of it. Restricted Section included. But it still seems possible that he could have done it. Perhaps the Headmaster removed the books on it after the Dark Lord left school here."

Hermione sighed, realizing something very important, "I have no way of getting into Gryffindor Tower to get the diary out of Ginny's hands."

Professor Snape laughed gruffly, "Well, you could just shadow her, of course. If you knew how to disguise your presence it'd be easy enough to wait until she takes it with her and Accio it from under her nose. Or is that too sneaky for you, Miss Granger?"

She shrugged. "No more so than anything else I've been doing recently. You say that there is a spell that act likes an invisibility cloak?"

Narrowing his eyes, Professor Snape asked, "What do you know of invisibility cloaks?"

"I've read about them!" She smiled brightly. "They are just so fascinating. Especially one in particular that is rumored to hide you even from Death."

"The Deathly Hallow's fairy tale. I'm not sure I put much stock into it. Although the Headmaster seems quite taken with it himself. Perhaps he'll lend you a copy of the book where the original story came from."

"I'd like that. I'd like that very much." Hermione hadn't come across a book she didn't like... well, excluding the ones by Lockhart. She told Professor Snape as much to which she got a genuine laugh out of him.

"It's typical of the Headmaster, really, to employ incompetent, evil, and dangerous teachers in that position. Perhaps that is the only way in which it is 'cursed'. Nobody in the last twenty years has come out of Hogwarts with a comprehensive Defense Against the Dark Arts education. It'll be a breeze, really, for the Dark Lord to take over if the average recent graduate is anything to go by."

"And if by some miracle you became the DADA professor which one would you be?" Hermione asked.

He smiled at her from behind his hands which were threaded just so as to make it look like a steeple. "Which one do you think?"

"I'd have to see if it follows a pattern but my guess is dangerous, sir."

"Like you said, if by some miracle, I guess you may make your final verdict then. Although, most of your classmates would give no thought before declaring me evil."

She sighed and shook her head at the collective intelligence of her classmates. "If you were evil you wouldn't be still teaching these imbeciles but would be turning them into potions ingredients. If they had anything of value to use in a potion. Well, we've had evil and incompetent so far so maybe next year will be the dangerous year and you will get your chance to show them a proper DADA education."

Not long after that conversation she left with Professor Snape shadowing her to the Great Hall for dinner. In a way, she felt that having him there close by made her feel safer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: All known property herein is fully owned by the inimitable J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this. Not even ad revenue. So I do this for your reviews and my own enjoyment.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**The Royal We**

* * *

"Guess who was made Slytherin Seeker." Draco announced about a week into classes. He had on one of those grins that you couldn't tell if you wanted to slap it from their face, or smile back. Hermione made as if to really think about that.

"Hmm, Blaise?" She smiled cheekily.

Draco gave her an exasperated sigh and sat across from her, peering through her exceedingly large stacks of books, at the Library tables "No, he's not at all the right build for it. Or temperament for that matter. I am the new Slytherin Seeker. Come watch me train tomorrow?"

Hermione smirked, "Not even if you doused yourself in love potion. I have my studies, you know."

Draco pouted, "Please, Hermione. You don't even need to study, you've already memorized all the school books."

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, preparing to dig in her heels about watching Draco try to find a tiny flying golden ball. "This is outside reading. I'm researching the Deathly Hallows."

Draco smiled beguilingly, "Okay, bring some of the books with you, then. I'm sure Madam Pince will let you check one or two out."

Hermione shook her head no, "How am I supposed to cross reference with only one or two books?"

Draco looked stumped for a moment about how he was going to persuade her. "Oh, I know. I can help you research if you come watch me play. I'll even see if my dad has anything on them in our family Library. It's more well stocked than Hogwarts' Library, it has many rare tomes I just know you would love to get your hands on."

Hermione had to admit she was salivating a little at the thought but she wondered if she could trust any book lent to her by Lucius Malfoy. "Oh, all right. But I hope you know I'm doing this for the books, not for you."

Draco only smiled and pranced off, leaving her to immerse herself once more in the books on the Peverell brothers. She was reading the particularly lengthy book, _Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy_, which was on loan from Professor Snape who had said that it had helped him learn about his own family. The same family that had disowned his mother but had soon died out after that, not having any male heirs to carry on the name. She also figured if such an old family as Peverell was mentioned in the book then surely her own would be too.

Ollivander was an old family known to have moved to early Britain during the occupation of the Muggle Romans. His family had serviced the then feudal King of Magical Britain in cementing his power base. No one knew what name to call them as in that time they didn't possess family names. They decided succession solely by the wand now in her hand. As such it was by nature not a primogeniture way of succession. Tales told of several first-born Princes and Princesses passed up in line for their later born sisters and brothers. But again, it was confirmed that the line had "died" out shortly after the founding of Hogwarts. Several members of the Noble houses that had Royal blood had tried out the wand, only to be denied. The wand had then been kept safe by the family that had made it for the Royals, the Ollivander house.

All in all, it was a useful book to have come across, answering many of her questions. It also put paid to many of the myths about being a pureblood being better, more noble, as she was living proof. The wand chose her even though she was in effect muggleborn. It had denied all of the purebloods that had tried it over the years. Abraxas Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy's father, being the last one to try.

* * *

Early the next morning she walked down to the Quidditch Pitch somewhat groggy from her night of restless sleep. She knew she shouldn't have read so late into the night, but she was onto something. The grass was dewy and a heavy mist had crept in during the night making the early morning light seem softer, more subdued. The light shone through making everything slightly tinted pink.

Ron Weasley met her halfway there and walked with her down to where the Slytherin team and the Gryffindor team were squaring off.

"What's happening?" Ron asked Harry. "Why are you playing? And what's Draco Malfoy doing here?"

He was looking at Draco, obviously taking awhile to notice Draco's Slytherin Quidditch robes.

"Haven't you heard? I'm the new Slytherin Seeker," spoke Draco with his typical smug expression gracing his features. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

Ron gaped, obviously calculating just how much money Draco's father had just spent on him without much thought. His eyes were saucer like as they took in the rather beautiful broomsticks. Even if Hermione found Quidditch boring she could tell that these broomsticks were a cut above the rest.

"Good, aren't they?" Draco taunted the Gryffindor team. "But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I except a museum would bid for them."

That set off the Slytherins into a gale of laughter. Hermione sighed, Draco could be such a prat sometimes.

"Draco," She said in warning, "You invited me to watch you play with your broom, not your words."

His silver eyes turned to her, as if finally realizing she was there.

"My apologies, perhaps we could have a practice match to decide who gets to use the field?" He switched subjects and looked at Harry, "Up for it, Potter?" Even after last year's adventure the two wizards still had a rivalry. She suspected that would never change.

It was then she noticed something odd about Ron's wand. It seemed to be held together by tape. While the two teams prepared to have a practice match that Ron and herself were roped into scoring, she asked him to let her see his wand.

A quick Reparo later and it was fixed. Much to Ron's confusion, although she didn't see what was so weird about her being able to fix his wand.

"Hermione, your wand, it's not a normal wand, is it?"

She was tempted to tell him to have a look at it himself just to see him bow down before her comically. "It is pretty special, I guess. The only one like it in the world."

Ron's eyes widened comically, this time appearing to be like large pans. "That's not the wand I think it is, is it? Oh, hell, it is. That makes you- Oh."

She smiled and said, "Yes. Oh." She put a lot of meaning into that 'oh' without overstating it.

An hour later, Harry caught the snitch and won Gryffindor team the practice field. Slytherin would have to practice later. Draco, stomped off the field rather angrily, obviously he had thought just buying the best brooms would be enough but he wasn't quite as good of a seeker as Harry. Not that he would ever admit to that. The rest of the Slytherins followed him, though they didn't look like they really wanted to, all things considered.

Hermione saw Hagrid all but shove a harried looking Professor Lockhart out of his hut and she thought she ought to go visit with the half giant since she hadn't spoken with him since Diagon Alley and he seemed a rather nice sort, overall. If a bit chatty to shady characters in pubs.

She waited until Lockhart was safely back inside Hogwarts before making her way over there. She knocked gently. Hagrid opened the door looking like he'd swallowed an entire crate of lemons. Once he saw it was only her, he stopped looking like someone had told a particularly offensive joke about his mum.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me- come in, come in- thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again-"

Hermione took a seat as far from the fire as she could get, which happened to be next to Fang, Hagrid's boarhound.

"What was Professor Lockhart in here for, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, jumping right in, while idly scratching the big dog behind its rather large ears. Next to Hagrid, of course, it looked like a rather normal sized dog.

"Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well," Hagrid growled, grabbing a half plucked rooster off his scrubbed table and setting down a teapot. He must've been making tea before she got here. "Like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."

"Professor Dumbledore _obviously_ thought he was the best man for the job-" Hermione said sarcastically.

"He was the on'y man for the job," Hagrid said, offering her a plate of treacle fudge. "An' I mean the on'y one. Getting very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. So tell me. Why isn't Harry with you?"

Hermione shrugged noncommittally. "He was at Quidditch practice. I thought I'd come down and have a talk with you instead of watching."

"Oh well, Tell 'im next time yeh see 'im that I want one o' those signed photos I hear he's giving out."

Hermione noticed Hagrid was chuckling to himself, obviously he was only joking about the signed photos. It was probably a rumor started by Professor Lockhart.

"Come an' see what I've bin growin'," said Hagrid as Hermione finished the last of her tea, she hadn't dared touch the Treacle.

Behind Hagrid's hut was a small vegetable patch that was burgeoning with extra large pumpkins, a dozen of them in total. They were roughly the size of a large boulder each.

"Gettin' on well, aren't they?" Hagrid spoke joyfully. "Fer the Halloween feast... should be big enough by then."

Hermione knew the only way a pumpkin would grow that large was with a bit of magical assistance. "What charm or potion have you been using to stir their growth?"

Hagrid soon shushed her while indicating something about a pink umbrella leaning against the back wall of the cabin. "Keep it a secret, won't yeh?"

She crossed her heart, "Absolutely. I wouldn't do that to a friend of Harry's." Secretly she made a mental note to keep an eye on the situation since Hagrid wasn't supposed to use magic or have a wand. It was probably nothing, just a Gamekeeper trying to keep magic in his life, not some nefarious plot. But just in case she would keep his secret.

Since it was near lunch by then she said goodbye to Hagrid and headed back up to the doors of the school. Professor McGonagall met her just inside of the cool entrance and asked her, "Have you seen Mr Potter or Mr. Weasley?"

She pointed to the Quidditch Pitch. The Gryffindor Head of House rolled her eyes and sighed, "Of course they are. Thank you for your help, Miss Granger."

"No problem at all, Professor, " She smiled widely.

"Professor Snape may be right about you. You are definitely Head Girl material." McGonagall complimented her before leaving to talk with Ron and Harry about their detentions. She was absolutely famished since she had only had a cup of tea so far today.

* * *

The next morning at breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry sat next to her with some interesting news about what had happened during his detention with Lockhart. A voice speaking eerily in the walls. Maybe this had some connection with Ginny Weasley's new diary. Hermione gave it her fullest attention.

"So you say it said, 'Come... come to me... Let me rip you... Let me tear you... Let me kill you...', that's very unusual for a ghost. Even the Bloody Baron isn't that menacing. It must be something else. And Lockhart couldn't hear it... This is just like that time last year when you said you heard the snake Draco summoned talk to you."

"I don't think it was any little snake, Hermione. It sounded more malevolent than that. Monstrous really."

"I'll research it and get back to you. Though I do think it was probably some form of snake so I'll start there."

Harry shot her a winning smile, "Thanks, Hermione. You really are a gem."

She shooed him off so she could finish Breakfast in peace and he was more than happy to oblige her. She soon heard him and Ron talking Quidditch together while Neville looked on looking a little sea sick at the thought of flying. Poor Neville, he wasn't that bad in most classes except Potions and he was still afraid of flying. But he was a genius in Herbology. He didn't deserve the reputation he got for being useless.

* * *

Soon enough the days had rolled by and it was already October. Hopefully, she would get to be present at this year's Halloween Feast. When she wasn't studying she was trying to catch Ginny Weasley out of the Gryffindor Tower with her diary in tow. So far it was a fruitless effort. The studying hadn't told her anything else about her heritage or just what was keeping Voldemort alive. And she hadn't seen Ginny with it since she had decided to try to get it from her.

Professor Snape hadn't been meeting with her since she had last talked with him. She had seen him stalking the halls but she couldn't speak with him freely in such cases. Strangely, she actually thought she missed him. Or at least the conversations.

Draco hadn't spoken with her either since the Quidditch incident. All in all she was left with very little else to do but watch Ginny like a hawk and read. She often walked around pretending to read while following Ginny Weasley at a safe distance.

Before Halloween she was invited to a Deathday Party for Nearly Headless Nick by Harry Potter. It was of course on Halloween so she saw her chances of going to the Feast slip into the background. She could have said no, of course, but as Harry and Ron were the only ones still speaking with her she had to go. Well, of course, Susan and Hannah would be there but they would be at a different table.

At the very least it might be interesting to see how ghosts celebrated the passing of time.

* * *

She was wrong, so very wrong. It was as if it was planned to be bad on purpose. Thankfully, she ducked out of there after an hour or so with Harry and Ron beside her all the way. That's when Harry heard 'the voice' again. She couldn't hear a thing of course but she did believe him when he said he heard something.

"Harry, what're you-?"

"It's that voice again- shut up a minute-"

He clutched at the wall peculiarly and squinted, seeming to listen for something inside the walls.

"Listen!" Harry tried to get them to hear what he was hearing but she knew she couldn't and one look at Ron told her that he couldn't either.

Harry was soon looking away and up. Possibly towards the source of the sound.

"This way," He shouted, and he began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. And on again up a marble staircase unto the first floor. Hermione was having the hardest time trying to keep up, and Ron wasn't doing much better.

"Harry, what're we-"

"SHH!"

Harry looked almost demented as his head swiveled to and fro trying to catch a silent voice. He stopped abruptly and turned white.

"It's going to kill someone!" He shouted and then ran off without them.

By the time they caught up to Harry they were both out of breath. That's when she saw it. The wall was shining with writing in some dark red paint. No, it wasn't paint at all. It was blood. She pointed at it in shock as she read the words.

**THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.**

**ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.**

"What's that thing- hanging underneath?" Ron spoke with a faint quiver to his voice.

She made her way carefully over, mindful of the large wet puddle taking up most of the hall. He and Ron had to catch Harry as he'd almost slipped. As they drew nearer it became clear just what was hanging from the torch. Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was frozen stiff with eyes wide and staring.

She couldn't believe anyone would do this to a cat, even that one. She was rooted to the spot and she only noticed she should move when it was too late. The feast had let out, she'd missed it yet again.

Soon the crowd had gathered around them and the spectacle in front of them. The rowdy people that had left the Great Hall were suddenly silent.

Then she heard an unmistakable voice shout through the quiet.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

She turned in betrayal, eyes shining, to see Draco Malfoy at the front of the crowd. He was staring at her, his cold eyes alive, flushed with excitement and grinning at the scene. Dead cat and all. And she knew, he didn't care that he had hurt her. Just what had happened this year that he would take such a giant step back? Or had he not taken any step forward at all and she was just imagining last year's Draco? Either way she felt the full force of the betrayal keenly. It was a punch in the gut.

The horrifying truth of it only lasted a moment before something else took the forefront. Argus Filch came barreling at them, probably called over by Draco's shout. She felt so sorry for him, and it showed on her face. He was thrown back at the horror of it, clutching his face as if to prevent it from being true.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" He keened.

That's when his eyes fell on Harry.

"_You!_" He screamed. "_You!_ You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"

Hermione stepped in front of Harry, her wand raised in front of her protectively. "No! We just got here, Mr Filch! We found Mrs. Norris like this... it's a tragedy but it's not Harry's fault."

And still Filch kept advancing on the two of them, both of them only children with him a fully grown adult.

"_Argus!_"

The Headmaster had finally arrived on the scene. Along with a number of the other teachers. He swept past Hermione, Harry, and Ron in seconds. Carefully, he detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

To her great distaste, Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster- just upstairs- please feel free-"

Dumbledore cut him off thankfully. "Thank you, Gilderoy."

They preceded to Lockhart's office. The three of them. The Headmaster. Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Lockhart.

His office was just as self-important as the man himself. The walls were literally covered in pictures of himself. How vain can you get?

Hermione waited patiently as Dumbledore examined Mrs. Norris. She had to presume he knew what to look for if it was a magical incident. She let her eyes wander to the Potions Master. He met her gaze and smirked. She had let him in past her shields to have a look at the events from her perspective. When he started poking around where he shouldn't she tossed him out. All the while Lockhart was making a nuisance of himself, puttering around while making nonsensical suggestions.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her- probably the Transmogrification Torture- I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter curse that would have saved her..."

As Lockhart was pouncing about, all that could be heard from Mr. Filch was dry, racking sobs. He held his face in his hands as he sat slumped over in a chair by Lockhart's desk. He obviously couldn't bear to even look at Mrs. Norris. Hermione's heart went out to him. The man didn't deserve this to happen to him. No matter that he had tried to attack two children while in a blind rage.

She ignored Lockhart as he continued to talk, only breaking her vigil of watching her hands as she heard Professor Dumbledore talk.

"She's not dead, Argus," he spoke softly.

Mr. Filch looked up from his hands with the most heartbreaking half hopeful expression she had ever seen. "Not dead?" he choked out, "But why's she all- all stiff and frozen?"

"She's been Petrified," Dumbledore answered, "But how, I cannot say..."

That's when she remembered reading something that was very important with regards to this incident.

"I know how, Professor Dumbledore," She said before Mr. Filch could yell at Harry some more as he looked like he very much was about to do. "It's a Basilisk. If it sees you through a reflective surface, like that of the water on the floor, it will cause paralysis. Obviously it normally causes death if it catches sight of you. I read about it in the library."

Professor Snape gave her a short, approving nod. Professor Dumbledore looked shocked that she had come up with an answer so quickly.

"I was researching it because... well, Harry is a parseltongue and he's been hearing a menacing voice in the walls that only he can hear. So, naturally, I thought it must be some form of magical snake."

Dumbledore looked at her disappointed, "Why didn't you come forward with this sooner?"

She blushed, embarrassed to be caught having forgot to do something. "With everything else I have been studying this year it completely slipped my mind after I'd read about it. I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore. And I'm even more sorry, Mr. Filch."

The thought that it might be a basilisk took the wind out of Mr. Filch's sails. There was no way a twelve year old, even one who spoke Parseltongue, could command the King of Serpents.

"If I might speak, Headmaster," began Professor Snape in a low, dangerous tone, "We do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween Feast?"

The Headmaster then spoke up for them, "Miss Granger came to me earlier in the day to inform me that she would be going to the Deathday party of one Nearly Headless Nick. She had tried to inform you, as her faculty adviser, but she made it clear that she hadn't been able to find you in your office at your office hours."

Professor Snape only sneered, "But why not join the feast afterward?" His black eyes were glittering in the candlelight, causing her to involuntarily shiver. "Why go up that corridor?"

Hermione answered this time, "He heard the Basilisk in the walls. Threatening to kill someone and he ran towards the voice hoping to do something to prevent that. It was stubborn and foolish of him but it wasn't wrong. It certainly wasn't some plot by him to hurt Mr. Filch's cat."

Harry looked at her, thanking her for saving his hide.

Filch simply picked up his petrified cat and spoke dejectedly to the room, "You'll let me know when you have a cure ready for her, won't you, Headmaster?"

"Absolutely, Argus," Dumbledore said lamely. "Once the mandrakes are fully matured when can get her back and purring for you again."

Mr. Filch nodded and left, cat held stiffly under his arm.

Lockhart tried to suggest he should make the Mandrake Restorative Draught.

"Excuse me," Professor Snape said icily, "But I believe I am the Potions Master at this school."

In her opinion it was a well deserved cut at Professor Lockhart and she was clapping internally. She settled for having her eyes tell him a quick 'Good barb!' before moving elsewhere throughout the room. Soon after the Headmaster let all of them go and she walked alone back to her room. She decided to have her mom send her a pocket mirror as soon as possible if there was a Basilisk loose in the school.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**The Royal Procession**

* * *

**Disclaimer goes here.**

* * *

Hermione was thankful she had splurged on an extending trunk, or rather that her parents had seen the need for it when she had shown them her required books for school and the ones they wanted her to bring with her about the muggle sciences in a large pile on her bed that nearly reached the ceiling. Plus, her fiction books as well. The books she needed to bring plus her school supplies and clothes wouldn't all have fit in a regular trunk. So when she needed to research the Chamber of Secrets she only had to pull out her copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. It was as simple as reaching in and asking for it. Now, if only she could put an extension charm on a bag so that she could carry it around with her always. But that magic was still a little advanced for her yet.

She plopped the book down between a glum looking Harry and a confused looking Ron. "It's all here in _Hogwarts: A History_. Salazar Slytherin is rumored to have made a room only his heirs could open, all of which were capable of Parseltongue, on his leaving Hogwarts when his advice to exclude Muggleborns was not heeded. Of course, at the time, he was trying to protect the Wizarding World from being noticed by the extremely prejudiced and violent Muggle World. Not that that made it right but it was certainly more understandable. The room is rumored to contain a beast only he or his heirs can control. That would fit with the Basilisk. Of course as I read in _Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy_ you are not directly related to Salazar Slytherin. The last known descendant of Slytherin was a woman named Merope Gaunt. She died in an insane Asylum. So, unless she has any heirs that she had in secret, the Chamber of Secrets should not be opening."

Harry looked shocked at the amount of information she had gleaned from simply reading. As if stumbling around in the dark, hoping to run across the information by chance, was the only way he knew how. "But, it has been opened, Hermione. Otherwise, what with Mrs. Norris and the Basilisk... That wouldn't have happened right?"

Hermione shrugged, "I could have been reading the signs wrong. But, I suppose you are right. The most logical answer is Merope had a child out of wedlock who opened the Chamber... now? But no, the child would be much older than that. Unless, of course, the Chamber has been opened before... I'll have to research strange deaths at Hogwarts from around 1930 to now."

Harry spoke up, "Hagrid went to school around then. Maybe he would know. Also, I'm pretty sure Professor McGonagall or Headmaster Dumbledore would know something."

"Okay, you check with them. I'll try to find some newspaper clippings from that era." Hermione sped off to the Library, it was a Saturday so she didn't have any classes to muck up her research time.

* * *

At some point over the week, Harry and Ron tried to convince her that Draco Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin.

"You heard him, Hermione, he yelled 'You'll be next, Mudbloods' looking directly at you. After you had been friends with him for an entire year. He's a no-good rat."

Hermione sighed, "Ron, that's just not possible. Merope Gaunt is not related to the Malfoys. The Malfoys thought the Gaunts were beneath them because they didn't have any land or holdings. The Gaunts were almost as... well, poor... as your own family. Merope would not have hidden getting pregnant by a Malfoy, she would have milked it for all it was worth. They didn't have the same pride in doing good as you Weasleys do. My thought is that it was a Muggle who had gotten her pregnant. And so she was kicked out of her blood supremacist household. And having the baby in those conditions probably led to her mental break and ending up in a Muggle Psychiatric facility where she died. You would have known that if you had bothered to read _Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy_."

Ron just blinked.

"Hermione, is there anything you don't know?" Harry asked perturbed.

She smiled and her face lit up, "Of course, but I read so that I don't know less and less things every day."

Ron spoke with a queer expression on his face, "Just how many books do you read in a week, Hermione?"

She paused to think about that and finally spoke a minute later, "I'd say around twenty when I'm busy. Forty when there is nothing else to do."

Ron looked horrified as he shrieked, "When do you eat?"

"Honestly, Ron. Not all of us spend every waking moment eating or thinking about eating food. I multitask and eat food while reading. So much more efficient that way."

Now that Hermione had had conversations with people able to parse logic she was finding just about all interactions with other people tedious.

"It sounds to me like you are not really reading or eating. You can't do both and enjoy both." Ron explained.

Hermione attempted an eyebrow raise as she spoke clearly, as if to a small child, "Your taste buds and eyes don't share any competing nerves so I don't see why you can't. However, your perception of how food tastes can effect its taste. In a classic experiment, French researchers colored a white wine red with an odorless dye and asked a panel of wine experts to describe its taste. The connoisseurs described the wine using typical red wine descriptors rather than terms they would use to evaluate white wine, suggesting that the color played a significant role in the way they perceived the drink."

"Hurry, Harry, we have to do something. I think she's turning into a book!" Ron proclaimed while shaking Harry by the shoulders.

They didn't speak with her further about Draco being the Heir of Slytherin. And anyone who tried to suggest it was Harry was met with the cold hard facts of genealogy. By the end of the week, most of the school was sporting a copy of _Nature's Nobility_, the publishers should really have paid her royalties.

* * *

Dumbledore had paid professionals to come and catch or kill the Basilisk and it was dead within a month of it being discovered. Thankfully, no one else was petrified but the cat. They were still cleaning up after the hundreds of roosters that had been roaming the halls, eventually one of the roosters had killed it with its crow and all was well. Professor Snape had kept most of the salvageable ingredients by request of the School. One of its pickled eyes now graced his desk in the potions classroom much to everyone's displeasure. He now had several jars full of basilisk venom. The jars were specially made to hold such toxic materials and were not within reach of student hands.

Finally, she saw Ginny Weasley with the diary one night skulking around the first floor girl's bathroom. While hidden behind a statue she quickly accio'd the book from out from under Ginny's elbow.

As she was also completely Disillusioned, Ginny simply looked around but couldn't see who had taken it so she ran off down another hallway. While Ginny was trying to catch up to the unknown perpetrator, Hermione took off quickly and quietly down the stairs to Professor Snape's office.

She knocked on his door and said, "It's me." He looked only momentarily confused before he let her enter and closed and warded the door behind her.

She sat the book down on his desk and as soon as her hand lost contact with it, it became visible again.

"I just committed the perfect crime," She said smiling as she dropped her Disillusionment spell. "Well, aren't you curious what is in there?"

"It's the diary of an eleven year old girl. I'm sure it's absolutely fascinating." Snape answered sardonically. Contrary to his words, he opened the book to reveal completely white pages. "She's been seen writing in this, you said... Hmm, it doesn't have the look of invisible ink. Write something in it."

"Why me?" Hermione asked.

"I thought I made it clear, I would have no active participation in this, Miss Granger."

Instead of saying anything back she decided it would be best just to write something.

**I'm Hermione Granger. Long lost Heir to the Royal House.**

The ink disappeared into the page and she looked up to see what expression Professor Snape was wearing. Needless to say it wasn't a happy one. She almost missed the words written without anyone writing them.

**Hello, Hermione Granger. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?**

Professor Snape waved her to continue as he watched on in contemplation. She furiously wrote as fast, yet neatly, as she could.

**I stole it nefariously from someone who didn't deserve it.**

It was true, Ginny Weasley didn't deserve it. But not for the reasons she was insinuating.

**Well, well, well. A girl after my own heart. Tell me, Hermione,why you thought you deserved it more than Ginevra?**

It was weird to see a book coming on to her like that. Usually she just liked the books, they didn't like her back.

**I've wanted to talk to you. I know you are the Heir of Slytherin.**

She took a chance on saying that as she wasn't at all certain that this book's intelligence was behind the Basilisk attack and the Chamber of Secrets being opened but it was a fair guess.

**You think we have a lot in common, do you? You think I'm the heir to some long lost line of noble wizards and you think the same of yourself. What if neither of these is true?**

She had to concede that that could very well be true. But she wasn't going to give up that easily. All other books had revealed their secrets to her and she wasn't about to stop now that the book talked back.

**My wand is all the proof I need for myself. As for you, T.M. Riddle, that's merely a logical deduction on my part. The circumstances surrounding this diary and the Chamber of Secrets being opened is just too convenient for it not to be related. Tell me, was your mother's name Merope Gaunt? Because I think it was. You must be named after your father, a muggle I presume.**

By the time she finished writing the earlier text she had written had all but disappeared. She waited patiently for Riddle's answer.

**DON'T SPEAK OF THEM!**

She looked up at Professor Snape to see what he was thinking. It was hard to tell as his face has very little expression unless angry.

"I think you should stop, Miss Granger. I think this book has some very Dark magics placed upon it. One is obviously some form of memory preservation, similar to how magical Paintings are done. The other is... a private feeling of wrongness about this book... And also, since you've begun writing in it you've gotten several shades paler. It's siphoning energy from you."

She took her hands off the book to notice that what Professor Snape said was true. She started to feel faint. "I- I don't feel very well, Professor."

Soon he handed her a potion. "This will help. Take as much as you need."

She had one sip and she felt its effects immediately. Her cheeks grew warm and she could feel her circulation returning to normal. As soon as she felt well enough to talk, she said, "This book. It's evil. We have to destroy it."

"I will see to it, Miss Granger. You should go to your dorms and get some sleep. I'll notify you when it's done."

Hermione checked his face for signs of lying but it was almost impossible to tell. He seemed to be speaking genuinely so she nodded and complied. If she pushed it, who knows how he might react.

* * *

"Headmaster, this diary was behind the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. It has a bit of Tom Riddle's soul in addition to some very Dark magic. Ginny Weasley was given it by Lucius Malfoy on the sly. I worked with Miss Granger to foil the plot before anyone got hurt. You should still have Mr. Potter find the Chamber to make sure nothing else unsavory lies within. His gift for parseltongue would be useful. I'd suggest checking the first floor girl's bathroom. It should be obvious why."

Severus had worn his potions making gloves, dragon hide of course, to handle the book to Albus' office.

Albus looked somewhat disappointed that it had all been resolved so easily.

"I also brought this," He removed a large jar of basilisk venom from one of his many coat pockets, "I am sure it will destroy it. But I wished to have backup in case of any ill reactions."

"That was very wise of you, Severus." Albus erected a shield around the diary.

Severus pulled out a dagger from one of his other pockets. He dipped it in the venom and stabbed the dagger forcefully into the book. He heard it scream and he felt a sort of satisfaction in it. Ink spurted out of it like blood. Eventually, he could feel the Dark presence no more.

"It is done. If that is all, Headmaster. I should like to get back to my grading."

Albus looked remorseful, probably about some past event that he felt responsible for, now long gone. "Yes, my boy, you've done well. In the future, I should like you to tell me of your bargains with Miss Granger if at all possible. She is an unknown factor. I am worried that she won't always be so lucky. Or so beneficial to the Light side."

Severus very much disagreed with what the Headmaster thought was luck. Hermione Granger wasn't using luck. Luck was for Gryffindors. "Respectfully, Headmaster, luck had very little to do with. If Mr. Potter had done the same, what would you be saying to me right now, Headmaster?"

Severus parted with that as the last thing that was said.

* * *

The rest of the year passed and still she had not spoken with Draco, she was beginning to suspect that their issues wouldn't be resolved with time. At first, it was fine. She hadn't really wanted to speak with him. But now she found it mostly uncomfortable.

According to Professor Snape they were dealing with Horcruxes. He was now tutoring her in recognizing the signature of what the Horcruxes would feel like. He administered a potion to her that let her experience the magic in and around her more clearly. It had lit up the room in brilliant colors, all except for his left forearm. The magic there was black, a darker black than even the dungeon with its sconces extinguished. She hovered her hand over it and felt slightly sick. "It's wrong. What is this?"

"It's the Dark Mark. It links the Dark Lords followers to him. It's how I know he's still alive." He said, making no assurances of his character.

She looked up but she couldn't make out his face in the room, though she knew it must be above his arm. "You must still follow him. When he comes back I mean. The Headmaster has asked it of you. How can you go back to him not knowing if he will kill you?"

At first, she thought he wouldn't answer, "I need to be of use. The Light side requires it. If it means I die, I will die."

She grabbed his right forearm, the one that was glowing blue, on instinct. "And what if the Light side required you to live? Would you then still not care to live yourself?"

She felt something strange happen as she was talking. And when she looked down she saw her magic reaching out to his and where they touched the color brightened. "Is this... usual? Do we just not see it?"

He removed her hand from his arm and spoke calmly, "Very rarely. I've never seen it myself. Until now. Do not worry overmuch about it, Miss Granger. This too shall pass."

"Do you remember when I asked you to always be my adviser? And you said you would, as long as I'll have you? Well, you can't advise me if you are dead."

He sighed, it sounded loud in the silence of that moment. "I cannot make you any promises. I have too many as it is."

She smiled with tears in her eyes, "Then what's one more? All I ask is that you try. Choose life."

"We're done here, Miss Granger. I will... do my best but as I said, no promises." He left her alone in his office. As soon as the effects wore off she made her way back to her dorm. Tomorrow, she would ask Draco why he wasn't speaking with her. She was tired of waiting for him to come around.

* * *

She marched up to Slytherin table and began talking before he could run off, "Draco, why aren't we still friends?"

Draco gripped his hands tight in his lap. "Why don't you ask your precious Potter?"

She sighed exasperatedly, "That's what this is about? I can't have other friends, Draco?"

Draco stood up abruptly and whipped around in anger. "Not when they are my enemy. Not when they make me look foolish to my entire house. Reputation is everything, Hermione. I don't know if you noticed, Hermione, but I've got no one. Not even Crabbe and Goyle. Not Zabini. I'm alone. And it's all because I drew my line with you. And then you consistently favor Harry Potter's needs to my own."

She shook her head in denial, "Harry is no more important than you, Draco. When you cut ties to me I had no choice but to cling to the only ones still talking to me. You didn't have to withdraw yourself."

"Last year," Draco growled, "You went off on a hare brained adventure for Harry Potter. Would you do the same for me?"

She grabbed his hand. "Yes, absolutely. You are my first friend, Draco. I'd do much more for you than help you on an adventure."

He looked suspicious. "How much would you do?"

She sighed and then looked at him with a tender expression, "I'd save you from a stray curse. I'd defend you if everyone said you were evil. I'd stay with you till the end if you were dying and try to make you smile."

He gripped her hand back and said no more. They were back in agreement. After a few moments of dopely grinning at each other he spoke, "You know, I only wanted to hear you'd light Potter's robes on fire if I needed you to."

She laughed, "You prat. Way to ruin the moment."

He looked sad, "I'm sorry."

"I know." She smiled and pinched his arm lightly. "Come on, or we will miss the train."

"Slytherin won the cup again." He said smugly as he walked with her down to the station

The train was packed with happy students, excited for their upcoming vacations. But she had more on her mind. Something always happened each year at Hogwarts and she wondered what next year would bring. Would there be a dangerous DADA professor? Lockhart was arrested for using illegal potions to increase his fame. It was by an ongoing inquiry by the Magical Law Enforcement. He wouldn't be able to teach the next year, thankfully for everyone with a brain.

As soon as she got back home she would happily take every hug she got from her parent's. At least she had them. Unlike Harry. And Tom Riddle. They shared so many similarities and she wondered where the similarities would end.

Before she knew it the train was pulling up into Platform Nine and Three Quarters. She rushed to her parent's with her cart pulled behind her and her brown hair flying. She sailed through the barrier and found her Mum and Dad smiling beatifically on the other side.

"Hermione! We're so glad to see you again. Your father has talked of nothing else for weeks." Her mum said, wrapping her in her arms with her father coming to wrap them both in his embrace.

"So happy to have both my girls with me again. I've bought you so many summer clothes, I hope most of it fits. Your mum helped me with the... special things. I couldn't go in that aisle without feeling like I was being judged by the entire store."

Not even 5 whole minutes into seeing her parents again and she was already mortified. She blushed brightly and dragged her parents to their car.

* * *

**A/N: **

**Elsie: The reason why blindfolding wouldn't work is because the Basilisk would just eat you. The Basilisk's curse is more of a curse for the Basilisk because it can't eat Petrified or Dead animals. It's still a snake, it eats its prey live. As you'll notice in the books and movies that none of the petrified or cursed to death victims were eaten by the Basilisk. :D Hope that answers your question.**

**l0stinl0ve: Aww! Thank you, that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever written about my fanfiction.**

**Other reader's and reviewers, I'd like to thank you all for sticking with me so far. Next chapter begins with the Prisoner of Azkaban scenes which I'm guessing will be much more interesting to write and read than these first two and PoA was my favourite movie. My favourite from the books was, of course, the Half Blood Prince. If you have any scenes in particular you want me to do, Royal House style, than please comment on this chapter with the page number from the book. Or describe it as best as you can. With love, StrangerEmotion.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**The Royal Reliquary**

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**I do not own the intellectual property herein and do not seek to make money for its usage.**

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After a stress free summer with her parents soaking up the sun in Spain. Hermione was happy to be back in Diagon Alley at the Leaky Cauldron. As much as she was happy to be with them again at the end of second year she missed her friends dearly. There was also the small matter of a prison break in which one Sirius Black, betrayer of Lily and James Potter, had gotten free of the highest security prison Wizards could produce. Azkaban, housing a large number of Death Eaters and common murderers alike, under which there was the largest collection of Dementors in the world. They were nightmare creatures. They fed on you, drained you of happiness, until all that was left was a husk of what you once knew. Hermione found it barbaric that they would do that to anyone, even a killer. What if there was someone innocent of the charges locked up there? And even if the Wizarding legal system was completely just... The methods to keep them locked up were both ineffective (as witnessed by Sirius Black's escape) and inhumane. And yet, no one else seemed to see it that way.

If and when she took power that would change. She'd see to it that the Dementors were no longer used, and instead were exterminated. She promised it to herself in lieu of doing anything about it now. She knew her word meant next to nothing now and she needed to gain more political power yet.

She'd barely checked into the Leaky that morning before being met by Ron.

"Hey, 'Mione. Fancy seeing you here. Are you staying the night?"

"Yeah. I requested to do so specially for my birthday. Have you gotten your books yet?"

Ron scoffed, "Of course not. It's barely 8 in the morning and already you are thinking books. Myself, all I'm thinking about is eggs and rashers. Join me? My family is in a private room. You'd get to see Ginny again. I remember you seemed to always be shadowing her last year."

She nodded and followed him into the room, it was absolutely packed with Weasley's.

"Hermione! Are your parents here? I had a question I wanted to ask them about catalytic converters." Mr Weasley greeted her warmly but he still seemed more interested in his own curiosity.

Hermione sat down and a plate appeared for her. "I could answer that for you. Or at least I'll try. What is it you wanted to know?"

Mr Weasley began to ask her before Mrs Weasley shushed him up by saying, "Oh don't bother the poor girl, she's just sat down to eat."

Hermione smiled warmly at them both, "I'll answer after. If that's alright with you both?"

Mrs Weasley seemed to approve of this and Mr Weasley just had to accept that as the only way he was going to get his question answered.

A brighter Ginny Weasley sat next to her than she had seen at the time of taking the diary. She looked far less worried and pale now. In fact, she had gotten a slight bit of skin tone since the end of second year.

After Breakfast she asked Ginny to go with her shopping instead of Ron. She chatted very casually until they got into the bookstore where, in an empty aisle, she raised her wand and performed the Muffliato charm.

"Ginny, it was me last year. I took the diary from you. It was killing you slowly. Making you do things you wouldn't normally do. With help from my adviser I had it destroyed."

Ginny looked wide eyed and a bit scared, "He- he's gone?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, not completely. Harry met him in his first year, under Quirrell's turban. Quirrell was our DADA professor that year."

"Ron told me about that. But I didn't believe him. I thought he was just trying to scare me." Ginny looked regretful, "I should have known something was wrong with a talking book sooner. I'm sorry I hurt Mr Filch and his cat."

Hermione reached out and took Ginny's hand in hers, "No, it wasn't your fault, Ginny. You were being played by Riddle."

Ginny sighed, "I don't want to be the victim. Being the victim makes me feel powerless."

"Sometimes we're the victim, Ginny, and sometimes we aren't. Life is all about recognizing when you are and when you aren't. And doing your best when you aren't to make things better." Hermione found Ginny to be a bit different than her brothers. She liked that Ginny had a sense of self that she was trying to better. She was someone you knew would grow up much different than their eleven year old self. A butterfly kind of individual.

"I suppose that's true. Thanks for telling me about this, Hermione. I was worried that someone else would hurt because of me. Because I didn't know who had taken it and what had happened to it."

Hermione smiled and said, "You needed to know. I only didn't tell you sooner because I was worried... something else would find its way to you courtesy of Lucius Malfoy. I didn't know if he meant to also target you."

Soon, Hermione had her full list of books bought for her third year classes. She was taking the whole gamut this year. She couldn't settle on only two electives, she had to take them all.

She had spent quite a lot of time browsing for titles for personal reading. She had gotten a few extra things not on the Hogwarts school reading list. Professor Snape had sent her another list of books she should pick up if she could find them as his own requirement to continue her further education outside of the established Hogwarts curriculum. He'd be teaching her defensive magic this year, from what she could tell from the list. There was also one book on Animagus' and another on Werewolves. She wasn't sure how those fit but she'd been able to find them very easily.

She and Ginny headed to Florean Fortescue's for a mid-day treat. She ordered a double chocolate espresso cone and Ginny ordered a cotton candy one. They both cringed at each others choices and then laughed.

Hermione saw Harry moving in the crowd and she called out, "Harry!" And once more louder when he didn't turn around, "HARRY!"

He smiled widely as he saw her and looked quizzical when he saw Ginny beside her. Ginny had gone bright red at just the sight of Harry and was attempting to slouch her way under the table. Hermione pinched her to get her to stop. Which seemed to work as Ginny had stopped sinking in her chair and had straightened up to glare at her.

Harry looked about the same as always.

"Hey Hermione, have you seen Ron?"

Hermione looked at him with a false look of shock, "What no 'how was your summer'? I'm surprised at you, Harry. You are usually so considerate."

He sat down next to them reluctantly, "Hey Ginny. You look... different."

Now that Harry brought it up she was wondering about that as well, "Yeah, you look a healthy color now. I like it."

Ginny blushed as though Harry had been the one to compliment her. "I went to Egypt with my family, we won a trip there."

Harry perked up, interested for the moment in what Ron's kid sister had to say. "Tell me about it."

She and Harry listened to Ginny speak about her trip but she had one more thing she wanted to do before leaving for Hogwarts. So, at the end of Ginny's story, Hermione spoke up, "I've still got ten Galleons. It's my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."

Harry looked at her bags and bags of books and jokingly said, "I think you've got enough books, Hermione."

"Not books, Harry," She said laughing with him, "I really want an owl. You have Hedwig. And Ron has Errol, sort of. Or at least his family does."

"I can take you to Eyelop's. Where Hagrid got me Hedwig. Want to come with, Ginny?"

Ginny nodded, her face blushing prettily now that she wasn't nearly as reactive to Harry's simple presence. "I'd like that. I can't get anything myself this year but it's always fun to see the owl's and such.

Unfortunately, the owl shop was a bust as she didn't see any she liked. Harry then led her to the Magical Menagerie to see if there was anything she would like there. As might be expected of a store with that name it was crowded with animals of all kinds, a lot that she had never before seen in her life. It was also not the most clean or quiet place. There was a din of noise from all the creatures that could make noise all doing so at once. Ron was at the counter, buying something for his rat, when something big and red streaked across at his head. It was aiming for his rat.

Scabbers escaped from the shop keeps hands instinctively and through the door. All while the witch was screaming, "NO, CROOKSHANKS, NO!"

Ron, Harry, and Ginny all raced after him leaving Hermione to try to soothe the still angry sounding ginger cat.

"Hey, Crookshanks was it? It's okay. No one's mad at you. You were just doing what you were made to do." Hermione crooned at the big tom cat and it turned its beautiful golden-red eyes on her. She fell for him in that moment. "What a handsome boy you are. I'll take him."

The witch behind the counter seemed honestly surprised Hermione wasn't angry with the cat. "Are you sure? No one's ever been interested in him before."

Hermione let Crookshanks sniff and then lick her hand while she said, "I'm sure. This is the pet for me. Can't you see how noble he is?"

The witch laughed, "I'll just have to take your word for it. You'll need some accessories and food of course. That comes to ten galleons total for the lot."

Hermione paid it willingly, "Perfect."

She turned to a mewing Crookshanks who was tapping on her arm. He seemed to want pets so she picked him up and began petting him. He soon settled in her arms purring. "Have the cage and other things sent to the Leaky Cauldron under the name Hermione Granger."

She left the store to run across an angry looking Ron, "You bought that monster?"

She wasn't really listening to Ron so she answered distractedly, "He's gorgeous, isn't he?"

Harry, Ron, and Ginny all did a spit take between her and the cat she was holding peacefully in her arms. Sure, he was a bit bowlegged. And his hair was a little matted, but she fix that. And he had a squished in face. But all that just added character. She thought he looked rather unique.

"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!" Ron shouted in the street, causing a few witches to look at him askance.

Hermione spoke half to Ron and half to her new pet, "He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?"

"And what about Scabbers?" said Ron, pointing at the lump in his chest pocket. "He needs rest and relaxation! How's he going to get it with that thing around?"

Hermione looked up him finally and away from her cat. "That reminds me, you forgot your rat toni," She handed it to him while he kept a suspicious eye trained on the furball in her arms, "Now, stop worrying. Crooks will be on the other side of the castle with me. What's the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he'd been in there for ages; no one wanted him."

Ron snarked some more but eventually they moved on from the topic of her new pet. She escaped as soon as she could once they got back to the Leaky Cauldron to put away her books, which she had shrunk and put in her pockets before leaving Florean's, and settle Crooks in her room.

* * *

Hermione soon found out Crookshanks did not like being kept in his carrier. And Ron very much wanted him nowhere else but there. Well, he could stuff it as she wasn't going to upset her cat unduly. Ron, though, she had no problem upsetting. As a result she sat in a different compartment than Harry and Ron's. Draco seemed to think her cat was hilarious because he couldn't stop laughing after looking at him.

"Merlin, Hermione, but you have terrible taste in pets. Does he at least do something for being that ugly?"

Hermione huffed as she stroked a purring Crookshanks. "He's half Kneazle. I assume he has some Kneazle powers."

Draco nodded, "Well, I assume he must think I'm trustworthy since he hasn't launched himself at my face."

"I only have to give the word, Draco." She joked, tauntingly. "But I won't, I'm afraid you'll sue me for defacing 'a beautiful piece of art'."

"Hey! I only said that in jest," He smirked, "Mostly."

The train stopped at some point during the trip. She wondered if it was authorities checking the train or sabotage by Sirius Black. As she was wondering the compartment grew cold very suddenly. Ice fern formed on the window, pretty but strange due to the season. Her breath came out in wisps and Crookshanks grew agitated in her lap. She felt like she was sinking, falling away, and all that was down there was never ending despair. She intellectualized it, she knew it was just her reaction to Dementors in the area. Even so, it was a chilling sensation.

During the worst of it, Crookshanks leapt up and began hissing territorially at the door. As if trying to scare the Dementor off.

She looked over and Draco was as white as a sheet. "It's okay," She spoke in an attempt at being reassuring, "They will be gone soon."

She heard a blood curdling scream as soon as she said that. She wanted to leap up and see if anyone was hurt but she was strangely glued to her seat. Draco shared a panicked look with her before he pulled himself together. "I know. My father would kill anyone who let me come to harm."

She grimaced, incapable of even forming a smile, and said, "Mine too. Muggle or no. He's quite handy with a drill and knows just the right amount of anesthesia to kill someone."

The screaming stopped after the Dementors left. Draco looked at her and said, "Thank Merlin that stopped. It was worse than nails on a chalkboard. Wonder who was doing that? It sounded like a boy. I think, it was so high pitched it could have been either."

Hermione didn't have any idea. "Could have been anyone. It sounded horrible. I've never read of anyone having that bad of a reaction to Dementors."

Draco just shrugged as they began moving again towards the castle. The rest of the trip was spent trying to calm Crooks and then coax him into his carrier so that he could get to her room safely.

* * *

She'd barely made it into the castle before Professor Snape descended on her. "Miss Granger, the Headmaster would like to speak with you in his office." Professor Snape gave a courteous nod to Draco which he returned and then he set off without her, expecting her to keep up.

She waved goodbye to Draco before following after the especially surly looking Professor. It took her going at a near sprint all the way there but she kept up. She was out of breath and pink in the face as they stopped to rise up the spiral staircase behind the stone gargoyle.

As usual, Professor Dumbledore greeted her with a twinkle in the eye and the plying of sweets that she had to say no to due to her family. Not that she minded sweets personally but she knew what happened if you had too many. She'd watched her mother and father at work many times.

"This is about my schedule, isn't it?"

Dumbledore plopped a candy in his mouth as he spoke, "In a manner of speaking, yes. We've decided to revise your schedule this year a bit. Due to how many electives you are taking you will be taking some classes at the same time. Naturally, this is impossible. Impossible without magic, of course."

Professor Snape laid down a wooden box covered in symbols, which he opened to reveal a golden instrument that by its design appeared to go around the neck. The centerpiece was a small hourglass filled with pure white sand. "This is a Time Turner, Miss Granger. You are to use it to go to the classes which you wouldn't be able to go to otherwise. If you need extra time for any other reason you will come to my office and I will oversee it to make sure that it's not abused."

Dumbledore continued where Professor Snape left off, "You may only use it to go back 6 hours maximum in a day. That is a limitation of the Time Turner itself so take that into account when planning how to spend your extra time."

"Naturally, you are to keep secret your possession of this device," Professor Snape warned, "Not one of your friends can know about it."

"Won't they wonder how I am in multiple classes at the same time, sir?" Hermione asked seriously.

"You will have to leave them to their imagination, Miss Granger." Professor Snape smirked.

"Yes, sir," Hermione spoke respectfully, "Is that all? May I go down to the feast now, sir?"

Professor Snape assisted her in putting on the Time Turner and instructed it was to go beneath her robes and other clothes. "Be careful, Miss Granger. Now go."

She missed the sorting, of course, but the feast was yet to come so she took a seat next to Draco, who was talking animatedly with Blaise. "You say he fainted?" Draco laughed almost hysterically.

"Who fainted?" She asked as the plates full of food appeared.

Draco smirked, "You tell her Blaise."

Blaise leaned over the table a bit to catch her eyes as he told the story, relayed to him by Neville, of Harry Potter screaming and fainting in the carriage when the Dementors had gone past. "And so he had to be woken up by the new DADA teacher, the shabby looking one up there, and have chocolate shoved up him to get him to stop shaking."

She looked up to the Head table to see the new teacher for herself. Immediately she thought, 'Dangerous is not a word I would use to describe him.' He looked heavily down on his luck. He was the very opposite in appearance to Lockhart who had come before. He had kind looking eyes though and they put her at ease. She wondered if perhaps the 'evil, incompetent, dangerous' pattern was wrong. But then she saw his scars. Like something big and nasty had gotten a piece of him. Slashes running diagonally down one side of his face. They were old scars. He was attempting to have a conversation with Professor Snape, who was staring into the distance in the preoccupied way he sometimes did.

The food at the feast was as good as always, although she barely paid it any mind as she kept having to restrain Draco from taunting Harry. When she found out who was the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher she smiled happily up at Hagrid, who gave her a wave back with his large meaty hand. That did explain the rather peculiar book that she had tied down in her trunk.

Draco was telling her about the appointment of Hagrid as CoMC teacher, "I can't believe they let a large oaf like that teach. Not to mention the obviously poor looking DADA teacher. What, they couldn't find any teachers that know how to dress?"

Blaise sniggered, he was almost as proud of his money as Draco was of his.

Hermione scowled, "Not everyone can be rich. And it's not like any of the other teachers are particularly well off. It's not known for being a well paid position."

"Aww, Hermione. Do you have tender feelings for the new Professor?" Blaise taunted.

She shook her head aggressively, "Of course not, Blaise. I don't have tender feelings for anyone, as you are well aware."

Blaise held a hand up over his heart as he smiled unrepentantly, "My lady, you wound me."

"Not possible," Hermione said smirking, "You'll find a girl that will be just as ambitious as you Blaise. And on that day you will know what true pain is... Because she will be more heartless than you can imagine."

Draco laughed, "That's dark, Hermione. I was almost convinced you didn't have it in you."

Hermione shrugged, "I like to keep it to myself. With great power comes great responsibility. If I went around flaunting it. Then it would cease to be as effective when I really needed it."

Hermione rushed up to the Head Table as soon as the Feast let up.

"Congratulations, Hagrid!" Hermione shouted excitedly as she reached the teacher's table. Harry and Ron came up behind her to also give their congratulations.

"Can't believe it... great man, Dumbledore... came straight down to me hut after Professor Kettleburn said he'd had enough... It's what I always wanted..." Tears were streaming down his face and getting caught in his scruffy black beard. Professor McGonagall shooed them away as Hagrid wiped his face on his over-sized napkin.

She waved goodnight to them all before heading up to her dormitory, no longer alone in it now that she had Crookshanks. Once she got up there, she saw her trunk at the end of her bed, princess sized of course, and Crookshanks was already out of his carrier and sleeping curled up on her pillows. Light green pillows with golden leafs embroidered on them. The comforter matched but was in opposite colors with the embroidery being green leaves and the fabric being gold. The sheets were the color of a summer sky for the bed sheets and a cloud for the top sheet.

She pet Crookshanks distractedly as she got ready for bed, he made a short snort at being touched while sleeping that she found absolutely adorable. As soon as she made herself comfortable, Crooks settled back down over her stomach. She pet him slowly and he purred her to sleep.

* * *

She got her schedule and looked at it briefly while sitting next to Draco who wasn't paying any mind to her because he couldn't restrain himself from taunting Harry about his fainting fit. She'd given up, honestly, on getting those two to reconcile whatever stupid rivalry they had going on. Pansy joined in, trying to endear herself to Draco no doubt. All in all, it was a normal first day of school. Besides the fact that she'd have to use her Time Turner two times today. She had Divination, Muggle Studies, and Arithmancy all at nine o'clock. She saw after lunch was Care of Magical Creatures, which would be fun with Hagrid teaching it to be sure. The man thought Dragons were fine pets and that a giant three headed dog was adorable.

As soon as she was finished eating she headed up the stairs to the North Tower where Divination was taught. She got a good twenty minute head start on everyone else. She almost got lost but had a knight in a painting lead her the rest of the way up a spiral staircase.

The classroom was accessed by a trapdoor, which dropped a silver ladder for her to climb up into a now empty classroom. She was used to that however as she was usually the first to arrive to any given class. Inside, it looked like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. Twenty small circular tables were crammed inside, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs.

It was somewhat dark in the room except for a dim, crimson light from all the light sources being covered with dark red scarves. The fire was burning in the grate, making it stifling warm. The kettle in the fire was giving off a sickly sort of perfume. The shelves were packed with assorted knickknacks, dusty looking feathers, stubs of candles, playing cards tattered with age and use, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

She sat down and waited patiently for the rest of the class to assemble. Within twenty minutes the class was full of whispering students. Neville had seated himself next to her and seemed slightly fidgety.

Finally, Harry and Ron showed up. They looked around at the classroom before Ron asked, "Where is she?"

In a stage whisper she heard the Professor speaking from some point in the room, probably hiding in the drapes.

"Welcome," she said, "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

'Just how hokey can you get?' Hermione thought derisively. If Lockhart was a scam artist. This must be the scam master. Professor Trelawney resembled a jewel encrusted owl. She was exceedingly thin, covered in bangles, shawls and over-sized rings, and her eyes were magnified to many times their normal size by her large, round, thick glasses.

"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and Harry and Ron climbed awkwardly into a table occupied by one other person, Lavender Brown. Lavender Brown was a girl in her year sorted Gryffindor. She seemed a little spacey and vapid in Hermione's opinion. From what little she had interacted with her, Hermione always came away from it feeling frustrated and Lavender looking offended.

"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair by the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

Hermione wanted so very much to gag at that pronouncement but she kept her mouth shut respectfully. Meanwhile, Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."

Harry and Ron both looked at her and she scowled back at them. As if she only knew how to learn from books because she happened to read quite a few of them. She had seen the magic they couldn't with Professor Snape last year, how's that for Sight? Uppity cow of a Professor.

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. Hermione kept her schooled into impassivity, blocking her mind as a matter of course against this windbag. "It is a Gift granted to a few. You, boy," she said and Neville startled predictably beside her. "Is your Grandmother well?"

For the rest of the class Hermione remained unimpressed. It was mostly cold reading which was emphatically not a form of magic. She even frightened Neville into breaking his cup to make her look more prescient. What a sham. Then she tried to convince Harry of his impending death and Hermione could take no more of it.

"_I_ don't think it looks like a Grim," She said inspecting Harry's tea dregs.

Professor Trelawney looked at her with mounting dislike, good it was mutual then, and spoke derisively, "You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future."

While everyone looked at the cup for themselves she spoke quietly but clearly to the Professor, "Honestly, this is all just a bit of cold reading and show magic. My muggle parents could do what you are doing here. I've read about real prophecies, the maker of the prophecy doesn't remember it happening. You are scaring everyone, especially Harry who has had enough bad in his life, to make yourself feel like you have the Gift you are so proud of. I will be dropping your class now as I do not need someone who is as big a hypocrite as you telling me about my lack of Sight. Also, you might want to get your liver checked out soon. Too much drink will do that to you, you know."

She stood back imperiously while Professor Trelawney covered her middle in shock. "How did you know?"

Hermione smirked, "My Sight works on the principle of actually seeing things. You have poor quality fingernails. Your breath smells of cooking sherry. And I can see the magic in your body trying to fix your liver right now, but of course it's sluggish because of your poor health."

Professor Trelawney spoke to the rest of the classroom, "I think we'll leave the lesson here for today. Yes... please pack away your things..."

Hermione left quickly and efficiently, she had to turn back time and go to Muggle Studies next. She found an empty classroom and did just that.

* * *

**A/N:**

**My answer to XXXSilverFangXXX's review so other's can see it:** All in due time. Hehe. I have a good idea for that already but we have a while to go to get there. Meanwhile we have Ron, Neville, Draco and his parents, Ollivander, Dumbledore, Snape, and Blaise who know but are all keeping it secret for their own reasons. Probably more to be revealed to in the future at a reasonable rate. She's in a tentative stage right now. Not yet ready to take on the full mantle of her responsibility.

**I also wanted to give bluefirefly5 a special mention for such detailed and lovely reviews. This chapter came out much faster due to their encouraging words. Thank you!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**The Royal Brood**

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_I cast the Anti-Litigation Charm. (rolls a natural twenty) It was very successful._

* * *

Her Muggle Studies professor was interesting to say the least. He came in wearing a punk biker's jacket and a Ramones' shirt. Around his neck was a red plaid scarf tied very haphazardly. His wavy brown hair stuck up in all directions. And he seemed to be perpetually smirking. Like he knew something you didn't. He had a mustache that seemed to be an afterthought to his entire face. His light blue eyes danced with merriment. Only, you weren't sure it was at your expense.

"Welcome Class. I'm Professor Adrien Gold. Yes, like the precious mineral. My predecessor would have you believe Muggles are a primitive and ultimately harmless subset of the overall population of Earth. That is not so. Can anyone tell me what powers the Muggles possess that we do not?"

Hermione was the only one to raise her hand. She waited until he smirked and nodded for her to continue before answering, "They have the power of the atom bomb for one. It's been shown to kill hundreds of thousands of people at once. And drastically damage the lives of many more. So, I guess the power of science in general is something Muggles have that overall wizards and witches do not have,"

"Very good, Miss?" He smiled cunningly.

"I'm Hermione Granger, sir."

"Can you tell me why, Miss Granger, an atom bomb is something Wizards and Witches should be afraid of?" He singled her out.

She thought of that question for a moment. "Well, the nature of the bomb is in its indiscriminate killing power. It detonates too fast for even the fastest broom or the quickest apparate to escape. Thankfully, Muggles are reluctant to use it where people live, but they might not realize there is a magical community where they are dropping the bomb. Most muggle deterring charms do not account for muggles in planes."

He turned to the board and began speaking, "Miss Granger brings up a good point about planes. Did many of you know that Muggles have already invented a form of flight not reliant on magic at all but on their science?"

He turned back to them and revealed a picture of a cartoonish looking plane high above the clouds. "The method they use involves knowing how much lift, thrust, drag, and weight they will have to account for to get any given object to go into the air and stay up there. They use engines and propellers to manage the lift and thrust. Now, to us this sounds incredibly complicated, why not just wave your wand and say a charm any first year can manage. To them, it has become an ordinary facet of life easily taken for granted. The study of aerodynamics is done by only those interested in it because not every muggle needs to learn how to float a feather. They are very specialized, much more so than us Wizards. Their sheer numbers have allowed them to spread all over the world. But it's their mind that has to adapt to not having the ease of magic, to come up with atom bombs and planes and even travel outside the Earth and into space. And it's that which makes them so very dangerous. Their creativity at times exceeds ours."

Hermione was absolutely fascinated by this perspective on Muggles. The adaption to not having magic as a given spurring technological progress.

"Originally, you were going to be taught this subject by a Mrs. Charity Burbage but she had to take employment closer to home due to her husband becoming unwell. I will receive notes at the end of class to wish her and her husband luck and good health. I'm a close personal friend of Mrs. Burbage and her family. She recommended me in her stead to the Headmaster and I'm grateful to her and Professor Dumbledore for the chance to show you all a deeper understanding of Muggles."

"Alright, I will take question from the class about Muggles and, if you wish, my own history on this subject, though on that topic I will be brief. Come on, there are no stupid questions." Professor Gold seemed to bounce around the room, laughing and smirking as he answered their questions. She, of course, left Mrs. Burbage a handwritten note at the end of class as did many others. As she left to turn back time and go to Arithmancy, she wondered what kind of teacher Mrs. Burbage would have been but ultimately she was happy to have Professor Gold teaching her.

* * *

With two turns of the dial she was back to nine o'clock, before she left the empty classroom she was in she pulled out a roll from this mornings breakfast. She would starve at this rate, thankfully she would no longer be taking Divination once she spoke with the Headmaster and so the extra two hours wouldn't be as hard as four between breakfast and lunch.

She made her way to Arithmancy, avoiding the route her earlier selves had taken to Muggle Studies and Divination both. She hadn't ran across herself from the future in the earlier timeline so she knew she would be successful at it. She wondered idly if some people would find the temporal mechanics behind time turners confusing.

She shared Arithmancy with Draco, who had saved her a seat next to him and Blaise. For them this was their first class of the day and Hermione felt just about ready for a nap. Aside from that, Arithmancy was a lot like regular Muggle math. Except, of course, it could be used in many magical ways, both for predicting future possibilities and for making new potions and spells.

Professor Vector very much resembled a female Albus Dumbledore. Down to the spectacles. Minus the long white beard. She had shock white hair tied up in a stark bun, with a few curly strands escaping around her face. She often had chalk dust all over her robes, which were usually a dark blue or green.

The classroom had blackboards floor to ceiling, with little cut out sections for the windows on the wall with windows, on all six walls. The desks were arranged so that Professor Vector could be seen from whichever blackboard she would be writing on. Which was a good thing because she tended to flit all around the room, writing where there was blank space and erasing sections she no longer need to make room for more formulas.

She sat down and waited for instruction from the Professor. "Not many of you will be familiar with the kind of math needed for anything beyond counting out change and other basic arithmetic. I will go over some of the concepts you will need to catch up on before we begin with actual Arithmancy. Beginning Arithmancy is not very different to such early forms of math, and in fact we used to share our findings with the Muggles, before we found out they couldn't 'activate' it like we could and so making any of their attempts only sometimes accurate at best. I would like you all to take out a piece of parchment and write down your full name on one side and your birth date on the other. Then I would like you all to consult the chart on blackboard two and write down a number under each letter of your name."

**Hermione Jean Granger**

And on the other side she wrote neatly.

**19 9 1979**

She flipped the parchment.

**Hermione Jean Granger**

**85949655 1515 7915759**

She waited patiently for more instructions.

"Okay, now that I see most of you have finished with that. I want you all to sum the numbers in your name and birth date until you get only one number. That means add them all together as if they were individual numbers and then add those numbers together until only one number with a single digit remains. Like, just a one or a five. But not a twenty."

**Hermione Jean Granger**

**85949655 1515 7915759**

**8+5+9+4+9+6+5+5+1+5+1+5+7+9+1+5+7+5+9**

**106**

**1+6**

**7**

**19 9 1979**

**1+9+9+1+9+7+9**

**45**

**4+5**

**9**

Hermione people watched to notice simple math seemed to be a bit hard for the rest of the class. Draco kept counting on his fingers and muttering which made Blaise glare at him as he kept interrupting Blaise's count. She saw some people needing to pull out another parchment.

"Alright, everyone has their numbers now to activate the numbers. Take out your wand and tap three times. Silently, this doesn't require an incantation."

As soon as she tapped the parchment the numbers glowed gold.

"Great, now you may read the description for your number, provided it's steady and not fluctuating. Yes, I see yours is fluctuating, Miss Bones. Everyone but Miss Bones turn to page fourteen. Miss Bones, turn to page thirty seven."

**Your number is: 7**

**The characteristics of #7 are: Analysis, understanding, knowledge, awareness, studious, meditating.**

**The expression or destiny for #7:**

**Thought, analysis, introspection, and seclusiveness are all characteristics of the expression number 7. The hallmark of the number 7 is a good mind, and especially good at searching out and finding the truth. You are so very capable of analyzing, judging and discriminating, that very little ever escapes your observation and deep understanding. You are the type of person that can really get involved in a search for wisdom or hidden truths, often becoming an authority on whatever it is you are focusing on. This can easily be of a technical or scientific nature, or it may be religious or occult, it matters very little, you pursue knowledge with the same sort of vigor. You can make a very fine teacher, or because of a natural inclination toward the spiritual, you may become deeply emerged in religious affairs or even psychic explorations. You tend to operate on a rather different wavelength, and many of your friends may not really know you very well. The positive aspects of the 7 expression are that you can be a true perfectionist in a very positive sense of the word. You are very logical, and usually employ a quite rational approach to most things you do. You can be so rational at times that you almost seem to lack emotion, and when you are faced with an emotional situation, you may have a bit of a problem coping with it. You have excellent capabilities to study and learn really deep and difficult subjects, and to search for hidden fundamentals. At full maturity you are likely to be a very peaceful and poised individual.**

**If there is an over supply of the number 7 in your makeup, the negative aspects of the number may be apparent. The chief negative of 7 relates to the limited degree of trust that you may have in people. A tendency to be highly introverted can make you a bit on the self-centered side, certainly very much self-contained . Because of this, you are not very adaptable, and you may tend to be overly critical and intolerant. You really like to work alone, at your own pace and in your own way. You neither show or understand emotions very well.**

Hermione recognized herself in the description. But she wondered if this wasn't very much unlike the cold reading done by Professor Trelawney. She read about this in the psychology journals at home. It was called the Forer effect. The Forer Effect relies in part on the eagerness of people to fill in details and make connections between what is said and some aspect of their own lives (often searching their entire life's history to find some connection, or reinterpreting statements in a number of different possible ways so as to make it apply to themselves).

She would give this class the benefit of the doubt however as there might be the potential for something more within it than had been with Divination.

**The Life Path 9 suggests that you entered this plane with an abundance of dramatic feelings coupled with a strong sense of compassion and generosity. The key to the nature of a Life Path number 9 person is found in their humanitarian attitude. Even the very average of those with life path 9 possess extremely compassionate tendencies. Usually this number produces an individual that is very trustworthy and honorable, and one unlikely to harbor any sort of prejudice. Obviously, this is a rather tall order, but you are, in fact, a person that feels very deeply for individuals less fortunate than yourself, and if you are in a position to help, you certainly will. The 9, being the highest of the single digit numbers, holds an elevated position in terms of responsibilities to mankind. Material gains are not overly important, although the quality of some life path 9 people is such that they are materially rewarded in very significant ways. In this, however, the 9 Life Path is not apt to get rich since they are very generous, sometimes to a fault, and usually have an easy come, easy go attitude about money. The rare 9 life path has a totally selfless attitude, giving up of material possessions for the common good. The 9 Life Path indicates you have a commanding presence. You have the ability to make friends very easily, as people are attracted to your magnetic, open personality. The term "hail-fellow" may have been coined to describe a 9 Life Path, as you may indeed be one of those who is generally upbeat and heartily friendly and congenial. You meet people easily and are quickly befriended because of your openness and amiable demeanor. Your genial ways often put you in the lead in whatever field of endeavor you pursue. Relationships can be difficult for you because it is hard to strike a balance that will work effectively. If your partner is one sharing your giving attitudes, the relationship will be happy and lasting. On the other hand, if you choose a partner whose focus is on material issues, problems will arise quickly. You tend to be quite sensitive, as you see the world with much feeling. The number 9's very deep understanding of life is sometimes manifested in the artistic and literary fields. If drama and acting is not your forte, it will surely be an area of great interest and potential. Likewise, you may be able to express your deep emotional feelings through painting, writing, music, or other art forms. The purpose of life for those with a 9 life path is often of a philosophical nature. Judges, spiritual leaders, healers and educators frequently have much 9 energy. The number is less inclined to the competitive business environment and may find this a struggle. As do all the life path numbers, the 9 has its negative side. Because of the demanding nature of the truly positive 9, many tend to fail in this category. It is not uncommon for persons with the 9 life path to fight the realities and challenges of purpose imposed here because selflessness is not an easy trait. You may have difficulty believing that giving and a lack of personal ambition can be satisfying. It must be realized and accepted that little long-term satisfaction and happiness is to be gained by rejecting the natural humanitarian inclinations of this path.**

"Excuse me but it seems these two numbers are saying contradictory things. Is this real Arithmancy?" Hermione asked trying to make sense of things.

"You make a good point, Miss Granger, but Arithmancy is rarely wrong. You will see in due time that both are true in their own way."

Hermione found that hard to believe. "Isn't that more due to it becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?"

Professor Vector laughed, "Ah, well, most prophecies that are heard are in fact self fulfilling. That's why there is power in them. When you do Arithmantic equations it is in fact very similar to hearing a prophecy, only in numbers."

Hermione thought about that for a moment, "And what if you do the opposite of what your numbers suggest? Would it not defeat the prophecy?"

"We will get to that, all in due time, Miss Granger." Professor Vector had them all do a couple more personal predictions based on their name and date of birth. One of with said her greatest joy was to be a mother at the center of a loving family. She wasn't so sure of that right now, she had plans she wanted to oversee that might last some time past child bearing years. Although, she had no idea how long Witches could keep having children.

* * *

As soon as she was allowed to go to lunch she had sped out of the classroom, never more hungry in her entire life than she was in that moment. After Arithmancy she had had to suffer through one more class, this time in normal time. She sat down at the Slytherin Table and completely focused on the food in front of her. It was odd but she thought for a moment Ron might be right about focusing on your food and on your food alone, it did taste better. Then again, that could just be the starvation talking.

After she had finished eating it was down to Hagrid's for her first Care of Magical Creatures Lesson. She walked down with Draco by her side, mostly because they were already going to the same class, might as well walk together.

Harry and Ron were a bit ahead of them and Draco kept making faces at their backs, to which she just rolled her eyes. If he was trying to get a laugh out of her he was going about it all the wrong way.

"So, did your numbers say you were destined to be with me, Hermione?" Draco raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Please, Draco. The numbers told me nothing except that some people see the Grim in whatever they do." Hermione answered primly.

"You can't fight destiny, Hermione. Destiny always wins. So, should we have a summer wedding or would that be too cliché?"

"If you are marrying your expensive silk socks, Draco, go right ahead. I hope you two are very happy together, or three I guess." Hermione smirked evilly, it was really fun to shut down Draco's advances.

They all made it across the slightly wet grass to where they could see Professor Hagrid waving at them. He stood with Fang outside his hut, looking quite impatient to start the lesson. They all followed him round the forest line and to an empty looking paddock.

"Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he called. "That's it- make sure yeh can see- now, firs' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-"

"How?" drawled Draco while looking in his bag for his book.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" Draco repeated as he held in his hand his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Looking around at everyone else's books revealed similar stopgap measures in lieu of knowing how to keep the books from attacking you.

"Hasn'- hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" asked Hagrid, looking crestfallen.

The entire class shook their heads.

"Yeh've got ter stroke 'em," Hagrid said as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look-"

He took Hermione's copy right from her hands and ripped off the Spellotape she'd used to bind it. The book started snapping but Hagrid subdued it by running a giant forefinger down its spine. The book seemed to shiver before falling open and laying quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Draco jeered. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess?!"

Hagrid turned to her and said uncertainly, "I- I thought they were funny."

"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Draco. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

Harry reacted typically to Draco's prat like behaviour. "Shut up, Malfoy," Harry spoke quietly but with a large amount of hate.

She ignored Harry's attempt to threaten Draco and placed her hand on Draco's wrist to warn him as he had warned her.

"Righ' then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so- so yeh've got yer books an'- an'- now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on…"

Draco looked like he very much wanted to say something but kept quiet at the look she was giving him. Harry was still glaring at him from across the way so she blocked his line of sight with her body.

"Ooooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side of the paddock.

Half-horse, half giant eagle creatures came trotting over with Hagrid leading them all on a long chain. They came in all manner of colors and were actually quite majestic.

* * *

Harry ended up riding one, and not dying because of the Grim, which impressed everyone but the Slytherins. Draco almost made a fool of himself but she had recognized the look in his eyes and volunteered to try next. It had been frightening but at the same time she thought it was better than riding a broom. Other people tried befriending the Hippogriffs, all of them doing as Hagrid said but most didn't want to try flying. When she came back down on Buckbeak, Draco was trying again but this time he was listening to Hagrid. His eyes sparkled as a pinkish roan one accepted his bow.

She smiled at him as she dismounted and bowed once more to Buckbeak.

Draco smiled back and for once it didn't seem colored by any ulterior motives.

"What's this ones name, Professor Hagrid?" Draco asked with more courtesy than he had been previously shown with regards to Hagrid.

"'Er name is Ginger, or Ginny as I like ter call 'er."

Hermione thought briefly that with the coloration of the Hippogriff it did kind of resemble Ginny Weasley, but she wasn't sure Hagrid knew that.

"She's nice," Draco spoke idly as he stroked her feathers, the girl Hippogriff made an almost purring noise at that which drew out a surprised laugh from Draco. "She sounds almost like a cat. You have magnificent plumage, Ginny. Maybe my father can arrange to have you moved to our grounds permanently, would you like that?"

Ginny, the Hippogriff, gave an appraising eye to Draco before she lightly nibbled on his fingers in what Hagrid deemed acceptance.

"Not sure how you'll get along with our peacocks but they'll have to deal with you." Draco laughed as he stroke her flank. For once he seemed calm and at ease. "They'll probably strut around in a huff with their tails in the air but you can show them your wingspan, that will shut them up."

The class ended about twenty minutes later with everyone talking excitedly about what a wonderful lesson that turned out to be. Even the Slytherins had been won around eventually, many of them talking about how they wanted to get one for their birthdays.

* * *

She had to assume not that many people knew what the Royal Wand was supposed to look like or they just weren't looking at her particularly closely. She figured it was the former because she was often in the limelight due to her excellent performance in classes. Certainly, Professor Binns never went over the History of the Royal house as it was all Goblin Rebellions with him. She was thankful that so far only a select few knew her secret and all of them were strangely tight lipped about it. If Lavender Brown ever recognized it than it would be all over school before you could say Azkaban.

Speaking of which, tensions were mounting in the search for Sirius Black. She hadn't been able to start her extra lessons with Professor Snape until the Thursday after the first day of school. They were only briefly in his office before he led her down a corridor she had never seen before, she was pretty sure it hadn't been there until Professor Snape wanted it there. The corridor led up some spiral stairs into a round, coliseum like structure at the top of a tower. The floors were padded with sand to cushion their falls. From the shape of the tower she had definitely never seen it from the outside, she would have remembered seeing one this large and spacy.

"I want you to try and disarm me. I will cast no spells in return. I will just evade you. If, after ten minutes, you do not succeed I will switch places with you and then you will attempt to evade me. We will do that for an hour and then we will go back down to my office to talk about whatever plots you are hatching this year, Miss Granger."

He smirked and then gestured for her to begin. She cast Expelliarmus in what she thought was a pretty fast way but he dodged it easily. It was just like all his duels she had watched before, he spent minimal movement to get out of the way and then perform a wordless counterattack. Only he was going easy on her by not doing the counterattack. After the first ten minutes were up she was quite warm so she asked for a short break to remove her robes, under which she had on her muggle clothes. She was wearing a white camisole with a lacy edge near her bust, which was adequate for her age but she hardly paid it any mind, it wasn't like anyone else had. And plain blue jeans. She also had a pair of sneakers on instead of the school assigned shoes.

"You're a bit of a rebel. Dressing like that to class. What would your teachers think?" Professor Snape asked ironically.

Hermione smiled, now ready to begin dodging and weaving, and said, "I'll have to ask one the next time I see them."

It only took Professor Snape two minutes to disarm her and she was pretty sure most of his shots at her were deliberate misses. He kept up a running commentary the whole time, mostly advice on not over dodging and when to break from the line of fire to best take them by surprise. It was her turn again to disarm him and she had to first bend over to tie her shoelaces and catch her breath. She stood back up and flashed a smile at a scowling Professor Snape. "Wait one more minute, going to tie back my hair."

Once she had the whole mass of it tied back in a traditional ponytail, she'd had to use two hair ties for added structural integrity, she signaled for him to begin.

She rather like playing this game, it was a good work out, something students at Hogwarts desperately needed if they weren't on a Quidditch team, which most of them weren't. She was sure she looked terrible though, but she figured Professor Snape probably wouldn't care about how splotchy she got from running around. Or the dirt that was now coating her shoes and pants bottoms.

Once the hour was up he simply swept his eyes over the incredibly pathetic sight she probably made and cleaned off the worst of it with his wand. He then summoned her a glass and some water, which she drank greedily. She wasn't ashamed, although the red in her cheeks might say otherwise.

She gathered up her robes, not bothering to put them back on, and followed him back down to his office. Once there she began to cool off some more and as he sat watching her finish the water she began to wonder what he was thinking. She wouldn't dare try Legilimency on him even if she knew how though. She examined him in return, their eyes boring into each others all the while not scratching the surface due to their mutual use of Occlumency.

"Sirius Black is after Mr. Potter. Or so we've all been told. I knew him, as you were probably going to guess from my clear dislike of him. He travelled in a pack of Gryffindor boys who called themselves the Marauders. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Two of which are now deceased. Pettigrew being killed personally along with a dozen or so Muggles as Black tried to make good his escape. All they found of Pettigrew was one of his ugly fingers."

Hermione tilted her head, "Which one? In case it's important."

Professor Snape waited a long minute, trying to remember which one it was no doubt, before saying, "Index finger, right hand."

Hermione thought about Pettigrew and Black some more. "Why did Black go after Pettigrew in the first place? Personal hatred or orders from the Dark Lord? Something else?"

"Most people theorize that Black had never liked any of them and was just using the Marauder's for his own end. His family was very much into pureblood supremacy. Of course, that's plainly false as I remember them at their heyday. The Marauder's were inseparable. They were all one thinking, breathing unit it seemed to me. It was nigh impossible to catch one on its own so that a fair fight could take place. Naturally I had to develop the ability to dodge spells coming from all angles or spend most of my time in the Infirmary. Not only that but they had the rare ability to find you, no matter where you holed up."

Hermione thought that sounded very suspicious. Probably not a tracking charm on something of his as Professor Snape, even a younger Professor Snape, would have noticed a tracking charm. "They must have had something, some relic to track people's whereabouts in the castle without anyone noticing them."

Professor Snape nodded, "Very possible. As much as I despised them for their tricks and brutality to Slytherins that they didn't like… they had some talent in their classes. Maybe enough to pull something like that off."

"So, there was no other reason for Black to go after Pettigrew then he just woke up with a black heart full of murder?" Hermione gave her skeptical face, "He betrays Mr. and Mrs. Potter, his friends, to the Dark Lord, can you confirm if you saw that taking place? And then he decides to kill Peter and twelve Muggles then stands there while the Aurors take him in? Something isn't adding up."

Professor Snape shook his head no, "I did not see the meeting between Black and the Dark Lord, I wasn't present for all meetings."

Hermione tapped her index finger on her chin as she thought about all of that. "How sure are we Black was actually the Secret Keeper? Was there anyone present who could verify this?"

"Only Lily and James Potter. But, of course, they are both dead. They had planned it all to have Black be the Secret Keeper. Why would that change?"

"Hmm, maybe… Well, do you think Black thought himself particularly clever?"

Professor Snape snorted, "All the time. He was vain about all the things he 'possessed'."

Hermione smiled, "That could mean that he might have switched places with Peter because so many people expected him to be the Secret Keeper. And when Peter betrayed Lily and James (was he also cowardly in school to your memory?) Black went after him because only he knew that Peter was the real betrayer. And then Black confronted him… and killed twelve muggles, no that doesn't sound right. No Peter killed the twelve muggles to make good his escape and planted his finger as evidence that he died."

Professor Snape narrowed his eyes at her as if judging her for her alternate theory. "And how exactly hasn't anyone seen him since?"

This was the coup de grâce of her little theory. "He was an unregistered Animagus of course. I read in the book you instructed me to buy about Animagus' that they can maintain their transformation almost indefinitely. They can live as that animal for years without anyone the wiser."

"Why would you think he is an unregistered Animagus?" Professor Snape asked, not yet discounting her theories.

"Professor Lupin is a werewolf, right? That's what the book was, a hint about the new DADA teacher since it was included in our extra defense lessons book list. I saw his scars, and I matched them to the paw size of a normal adult werewolf. And you said the Marauders never went anywhere without each other. It just so happens that werewolves won't attack wizards and witches if they are in the form of an animal. Werewolves only have the desire to kill people, not animals. So they must have become Animagus' all of them to run around with Lupin and keep him company. Probably not until fifth year at the soonest as Animagus transformations are notoriously hard."

Professor Snape blinked very slowly, "You got all this from reading those two books and what I said about the Marauders? I've read those books and the most I got out of them is a reinforcement of my dislike for Werewolves and that being an Animagus sounds useful. Especially for spy purposes."

Hermione shrugged, "You were stuck in your perspective. It wasn't allowing you to see those connections."

"Wait a minute, Harry was saying something about seeing a black dog following him when he escaped from the Dursley's. Could that be Sirius or Peter?"

"It's possible. It definitely seems more like Black's style than it does Pettigrew's. So the question becomes, if that was Black and Black is trying to kill Potter, why didn't he do so then? Or Potter just got scared by a big, fluffy puppy."

"I think Harry would have mentioned something if one of the dog's paws was mutilated… I just thought of something. We need to get Professor Dumbledore and go to the Gryffindor Common rooms."

"Why?" Professor Snape asked while standing up and hurrying out the door with her.

"Ron's rat Scabbers is missing a toe on its right paw. I couldn't help but see it, with how Ron was carrying on about Scabbers needing his rest, but I'm pretty sure it's been missing since I've known the rat. It was also Percy's rat before it was Ron's so it's fairly old for a common garden rat. Old enough to have been, say, alive at the end of the first war."

"Come on, Miss Granger. If it is as you say, we should hurry. With Black on the loose he might snuff the evidence before we can check."

She nodded and they raced up the stairs to get to the floor on which the stone gargoyle stood vigil.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**The Royal Vacation**

* * *

**I haven't suddenly turned into J.K. Rowling have I? No. Okay then, I don't have any ownership of the known IP within this story. This was written for fun, not profit.**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was often considered the wisest man alive, and certainly the most powerful wizard alive. He had great influence over many things and even when he didn't, he was aware of it in advance. Naturally when Hermione finished telling him breathlessly about Pettigrew being still alive and living quite comfortably as the Weasley family pet rat Scabbers, he was shocked that a girl so young had seen something he hadn't.

"I wasn't there for the casting of the Fidelius Charm. If I had been… Well, that's no matter. We must call Mr. Weasley to the office immediately and have him bring his rat."

"No! I'm sorry, but no sir, I believe that will spook Pettigrew if it is him. It's better to do an impromptu check of the dorms."

Professor Snape quickly agreed with her.

The Headmaster raised himself seriously in his viridian robes. He swept his arm to the fireplace. "After you, Severus… Miss Granger."

Professor Snape took a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the crackling fire. He stepped in and pronounced clearly, "Gryffindor Tower."

She followed behind and as soon as the spinning stopped she stepped out on the other side to notice everyone staring blankly at Professor Snape and herself. Ron was petting his rat right in front of her. "Hello, Ron."

She smiled and stepped out of the way to make way for Albus Dumbledore. As soon as he stepped through, the rat began squirming violently in Ron's hands.

Scabbers broke free and shot towards the portrait hole only to stop in his tracks and float up into the air at a wave of the Headmasters hand. "Professor Snape, would you kindly perform the revealing spell."

Severus Snape smiled grimly and slashed his wand at Scabbers. The rat shook violently while expanding into the shaking form of the very pathetic looking man before them all. "Peter, how lovely to see you again. Of course a rat like you would never be able to protect his friends at the cost of his own life. Pathetic. I hope the Dark Lord paid you well for your treachery."

"S-snivellus. You understand don't you? You would have done the same, I know you would." Pettigrew begged, still being held aloft by Headmaster Dumbledore.

She had never before seen him as furious as he was in that moment. It frightened her how much he didn't show if this was his true depth of feeling. "You know nothing about me, Pettigrew. Least of all what I will or won't do."

Albus nodded at Professor Snape, obviously communicating with him about something. "And that's why you won't understand why I'm going to turn you in."

Professor Snape waved his wand over Pettigrew in a complicated looking spell. "There, now you can't access your Animagus transformation or attempt to hide who you are with any other method."

"You can't, Snape. The Dark Lord-"

"The Dark Lord has nothing to do with this, Pettigrew. This is between me and you." Professor Snape growled.

"Um, I'm sorry… But has Scabbers been a creepy old man this whole time?" Ron asked while looking at Pettigrew in disgust.

"I regret to inform you, Weasley, but yes, he has. You may want to buy a stronger soap for the foreseeable future."

Harry spoke up next, "If Pettigrew is alive does that mean that Black may be innocent?"

The Headmaster answered, "Pending an investigation, Harry, it's quite possible."

They tied him up with magical rope and escorted him back to the Headmasters office. Pettigrew couldn't escape using his little trick so they forced him through the grate, Professor Snape holding him the whole time, and propped him against the wall.

"I informed the Aurors. They will be here momentarily." The Headmaster spoke as something silver shot from his wand.

Pettigrew kept saying no over and over again while they waited for the Aurors to show up. All the while Professor Snape was grinning malevolently at him. Apparently, he was enjoying watching Pettigrew squirm.

In a matter of minutes the office was filled with Aurors. They checked Pettigrew over and wrote notes on their little pads. After a few minutes they turned to the Headmaster. "Good work in sleuthing out the true snitch, Headmaster Dumbledore. He shows signs of Transfiguration exhaustion typical with extended Animagus transformations. He also has memory of committing the crime of blowing up the street and killing those twelve muggles. Veritaserum will be administered of course at the Department but for now it's enough to bring him in for further questioning. As soon as that is confirmed, the manhunt for Sirius Black will be called off."

Albus simply twinkled at the young Auror, not mentioning her involvement at all. Perhaps that was for the best. She had no idea how she would keep a low profile if word got out that she had solved the crime.

They took Peter away while he kept crying no.

* * *

Within a couple of months the press broke the story that Peter Pettigrew was arrested for being the one to divulge Lily and James Potter's Secret Kept location and the one who had used a Blasting Curse on the crowded Muggle street. Sirius was given a full pardon and many people contributed to a donation box to get him back on his feet after his unfair imprisonment. Sirius soon contacted Harry about how he was Harry's godfather and that he would like to take him in if the Headmaster would allow it. Apparently the Headmaster insisted Harry spend at least one week with the Dursley's before going over to live the rest of the summer at Sirius'. He had enough money from donations and being able to access his family Bank account to place a down payment on a very lovely house near the Weasley's. Harry and Ron would get to see each other more often over the summer.

She was happy for him, she really was. To find out you still have people who care for you, even ex-cons who were recently discharged of all crimes, and wanted you to live with them. That must be wonderful after what he has to go through and has gone through with the Dursley's.

Harry knew it was her behind the discovery of the true traitor. So now he walked around her all the time, talking about his Godfather Sirius and how cool he was… Yeah, she was getting a little sick of it to be honest but that was the price you sometimes had to pay when you saved someone's life from its downwards spiral.

Professor Snape still seemed as if he wished both of them could be imprisoned. She didn't agree and they had argued quite passionately about it several times. Him arguing that as he had switched places with Pettigrew that he was equally responsible for what Pettigrew chose to do. She denied that claiming that it was not Sirius' responsibility what Pettigrew chose to do with the information given to him.

Draco's father had been reluctant to buy a Hippogriff named Ginny for his son. Presumably for the same reasons she had found it funny that Draco had bonded with that one in particular. Draco made sure to inform him of the proper procedure when dealing with Hippogriffs and Ginny was settling in quite well at their estate, according to a prideful sounding Draco. Every time he talked of Ginny, Hermione had to restrain herself from giggling uncontrollably.

With that taken care of she wondered what else could go wrong this year since it was only a couple of months in. At the very least it gave her time to focus on her training regimen with Professor Snape. He also taught her how to brew Wolfsbane potion so that she could assist him with it as payment for her lessons, although she wasn't sure he could call her up on that all things considered. Mainly, she let his assumption slide because she enjoyed learning to make it and the process of assisting him brew it was also quite nice. It let her have someone to just be around when otherwise she would have been in her room alone, with Crookshanks.

She was taking this month's dosage to Professor Lupin, yet another thing she was asked to do in payment. The halls were empty. It was during dinner, which she had taken with Professor Snape so they could finish the potion quickly. She knew that Professor Lupin would be in his office, he usually took meals there when it was this close to the full moon.

She knocked on his door after weaving through the desks in the classroom portion of his domains.

"Enter, Miss Granger." Lupin said wearily.

She spotted him slumped over his desk, clutching a glass of water and some muggle pain pills. They didn't conflict with the Wolfsbane so they were the only thing he could use when he was feeling under the weather. "How'd you know it was me?"

She smiled and sat down across from him.

"Please, who else would it be?" His head didn't even lift itself from the surface of the desk.

"Professor Snape believes this new version should be more palatable to you. If that is any consolation." Hermione said cheerfully.

Professor Lupin snorted, "Strangely, yes. I might feel the smallest stirrings of hope. Or that could just be the medications kicking in."

Hermione set the bottle of Wolfsbane down carefully on his desk. "Be sure to take it at least an hour before sunset on the night of the full moon. Don't forget."

"I'm not likely to forget something I have to take every month at the same time, am I?" Lupin sounded tired as he said that.

"I should… let you get some rest. Do you require any assistance getting to your rooms?" Hermione asked formally. She wasn't sure why but she was always on edge where Professor Lupin was concerned. It made her talk especially formally.

"No, no. I'll be alright. I can sleep here if necessary." Lupin drifted off as she watched. She summoned a pillow for him and a blanket, from her own rooms. She had a few to spare for some reason.

She wrote him a note telling him to return it at his leisure and left to find some sleep of her own.

* * *

Most days you could find her ensconced in the Library. Often, one or the other of her friends would pop round to ask for homework help. She refused to do it for them but gave them the books and page numbers they would need to finish their papers. There had yet to come a day that she would run out of things to read in the Library. But she was becoming especially curious about what lay behind that red rope, the Restricted Section. Professor Snape denied her request for permission of course. Saying something about having to learn how to crawl before you could learn how to walk.

Madam Pince had caught her eyeing the rope more than once and now kept looking at her with suspicion. She wouldn't dare go back there without permission. The stern librarian just had no trust for anyone when it came to her books.

Hermione began thinking of ways she could get back there without permission. If there were wards it was a hopeless venture. She could barely take down the training wards Professor Snape had set up for her to practice on. If not, well there was the classic. She could cause a distraction and then slip in undetected. Or go in at night. She'd have to borrow the cloak of course but Harry Potter would probably lend her anything she asked right now.

Not knowing what was behind that rope was killing her. Her Boggart had been running towards those books but finding the entire place cordoned off with that velvet rope. She'd watched herself through the misty form of the boggart as he tried to scare her by playing on her fear that she would never know enough. Naturally she turned the rope into licorice that her boggart self ate quickly. With dramatic lightning at the end for added effect.

The class roared with laughter at that, she remembered.

* * *

By the time it was Christmas Break she had shown quite a lot of improvement in her evasion techniques. Even Professor Snape smiled a few times when she executed a neat roll out of the way or dodged it by a hair.

Harry was spending Christmas with Sirius and he had asked her to come. She accepted after asking her parents for permission. Draco looked a bit put out that she would spend Christmas with Harry but not with him. She was already invited to go to some silly Quidditch thing with him over the summer, she wasn't sure what more else he could want.

When they got off the train a big black dog was waiting for them. Sirius was still hiding from the Wizarding version of paparazzi and so they knew it was him. They followed the dog out to a side street of Muggle London that was empty.

He changed into his human form and seemed all the better for the months of recovery away from Azkaban. He had shaved, for one, and his hair was now much neater. His robes were very fine looking and his teeth had been cleaned up. She wondered if she could do something about her own buckteeth. She filed that for later consideration.

"Okay, Harry?" Sirius asked. "I realize this is the first time we've spoken face to face like this. I wanted to get everything ready for you at the house so I didn't have much time to pop my head in a grate. And this must be your friend, the one I owe all this to… Hermione Granger. You know, with the way you described her, Harry, I thought she'd be taller. No matter, I'm sure she'll grow into the Amazonian woman you made her out to be. Thank you, Hermione."

She smiled and awkwardly shook his hand. It was strange hearing an adult from the Wizarding community call her Hermione. Most of the one's she knew besides Ron's and Draco's parents were her teachers. It was probably something she would have to adjust to. "It's no matter."

Sirius shook his still slightly shaggy head, "I disagree but we haven't the time to discuss it in the street."

He pulled them both to his side. And they went. It was a strange sensation, apparition. You weren't sure what was your outsides and your insides. Time seemed to slow and speed up irregularly. Everything felt disconnected.

And then you were back in solid reality again and that felt even stranger for a brief moment. You had to stop while the world as you knew it reasserted itself.

Remus Lupin was there waiting for them and for a moment she wondered if Sirius was going to live at the castle before she noticed they definitely weren't in Scotland. Although, she guessed Remus Lupin being there made sense given that he was an old friend to Sirius according to Professor Snape.

"What will you do for the full moon, Professor?" Hermione blurted out the first thing to come to mind. She often did that when she was disoriented.

"I have a place I can go, don't worry, Miss Granger."

Hermione nodded, now feeling capable of walking again. They started up a hill through some fairly tall grass. On the hill was a building that more resembled a factory than anything else. It seemed to be converted in some sections to resemble a house. It was in those portions quite modern looking. There was even an outdoor hot springs nearby to the house. Overall she wasn't sure what to think of Sirius' house.

They stepped inside the modern entrance where Sirius helped them out of their coats. And shoes. They had to wear slippers in the rest of the house to protect the hardwood flooring, according to Sirius. She was obviously meant to wear the pink ones, but she snagged the black ones, leaving Harry to wear them.

The house was eclectic to say the least. It seemed to be a cross between Modern, Steampunk, and Biker chic. It definitely seemed very much like Sirius though. In the living room was a large Christmas tree, as yet undecorated.

"What do you think? I wanted to wait until you were here to decorate it. I have several boxes full of ornaments. I couldn't decide which ones I thought you would like so I got a bit of everything." Sirius was smiling bashfully. He was trying so hard to do right by Harry. After everything he had been through he was still kind. They hadn't taken that from him.

Harry's grin spilled over his face and lit up the room. "It's perfect. I couldn't be happier."

Sirius actually began to tear up so he turned to head out of the room while saying, "Who wants biscuits? I got a tin of most kinds. Kind of went a little mad in the store."

Harry ran to him and gave him a fierce hug across his back. "You did great, Sirius. Thank you."

Remus preceded Sirius into the kitchen sounding choked up as he said, "I'll just make everyone tea then."

Hermione turned to examine the house more fully, her eyes automatically finding the bookcases. They were simple looking with a clean black finish. The books were a bit too neat, he probably hadn't read anything on the shelf yet.

She became so absorbed in the books that she was surprised when Professor Lupin appeared at her back holding out tea for her to take. She might have yelped, not that she would admit to it out loud. "Th- thank you, sir."

He lifted his cup to her and took a sip, his eyes seeming truly happy for the first time in a long time.

She sat down gently in the black leather couch and sipped her tea while thinking about training herself to be more aware of her surroundings in the future. In her mind she heard Professor Snape chastising her.

"What's on your mind?" Professor Lupin asked her quietly.

She shrugged, "It's nothing, really, I guess I just realized something."

"What might that be? Your expression seemed to be very dark and tense for someone your age." Lupin spoke into the quiet room, Harry and Sirius had opted to stay in the kitchen to eat biscuits and catch up.

She smiled with only the barest of movements. "I'm not sure myself. That moment, before you came in with tea, I had the most melancholic feeling. I know having Sirius around as a surrogate father will be good for him. He needs that. Just as Sirius needs Harry to remind himself of the good in being human. But… I wish Harry had both his mother and father for Christmas, like I can just go home on Christmas and they'll be there, waiting for me. But Harry, he can't go home to them… I was also feeling a little sorry for myself because everytime I go home my heart breaks at the distance developing between us. My parents are staying the same but I'm changing… I'm becoming someone they love… but no longer really understand. Who will I be when I'm their age? Will they even know me?"

Professor Lupin smiled sadly turning to his cup to speak, "It'll get easier. I know that sounds trite, but it's true. My mother was a muggle. And I also had some added difficulties in being understood by her due to my curse. But she always tried her very best, and in the end it didn't matter that we were such different people. We were family. We loved and were loved in return."

"Apparently, I won't be happy until everyone around me is bawling. I'm sorry for bringing that silly thing up." Hermione laughed with a slight shake in her voice.

He held out a plate of biscuits to show there was no harm done. She took a raspberry filled one and ate it slowly while looking out the floor to ceiling windows. It was sunset.

* * *

All four of them smiled and laughed while decorating the tree. The end result looked mad but in a way she liked it a lot better than those professionally done trees. It had heart. Sirius had even held Harry up to place the tree topper, a snowy owl that looked a lot like Hedwig, on the tree. Tinsel was scattered everywhere. Blinking fairy lights whirled around it in dizzying patterns.

"Alright, I think we should stop before we murder the tree." Sirius laughed as he put his hands on his hips.

Remus Lupin guffawed, "You are the one who was laughing like a loon while tossing tinsel into the air."

"Well, that was fun!" Sirius sniffed haughtily, he still had a touch of his noble upbringing no matter what he was wearing or what his home looked like. "And now, for some fun for the adults. I have the hot springs and I have the eggnog. Now to put myself in the water and the eggnog inside me. You up for that, Remus?"

Remus shrugged, "No reason not to… The kids can watch themselves for awhile. I don't think Miss Granger will abuse that trust. Not sure about Mr. Potter."

Harry pouted.

Sirius laughed at his incredibly silly looking face and said, "Get to sleep at a reasonable hour you two. Christmas come faster that way, trust me."

Hermione and Harry wandered off to the guest room they'd be sharing. It wasn't a problem for her as she would hardly be likely to mistrust Harry now. Besides, she could probably take him down if she needed to do so.

There were two double sized beds in the room with a dresser between them on which sat a gas lamp. No electricity of course in a Wizard house. She always felt a bit like she was camping with all these gas appliances and wood burning stoves.

"So." Harry said.

"So?" She asked.

Harry smiled as he turned to her, "This was all thanks to you. Didn't I tell you that he was cool! I have a cool Godfather. I don't have to live with the Dursley's anymore!"

Harry wrapped her in his arms in a hug. She felt like she'd gained something amazing in Harry. Family. A brother that she would do crazy things for… she smiled and tears finally came out of her eyes. "Oh, Harry. You don't have to thank me. You are like family to me. I'm just glad to see you happy."

Harry nodded, she felt his chin tap her shoulder. "Me too, Hermione."

He stepped back and noticed her tear stained face, "Oh, don't cry, Hermione. I didn't mean to make you cry."

She wiped off her face but kept smiling. "You idiot, these are happy tears."

"If that's the case, don't let me stop you." He turned and jumped excitedly onto the leftmost bed. "This place is amazing. It's no Hogwarts but it's worlds better than the Dursley's. Are you going to come see us over the summer?"

Hermione shook her head no. "Probably not. I'll be going to some Quidditch thing over the summer with Draco but the rest of the time will be spent with my parents."

Harry's face turned sour at the mention of Draco, pretty much the exact same way Draco's did when she mentioned Harry. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Before he said something he would have to take back and apologize for she spoke, "Why can't you just let this go, Harry? He's changing. If you backed off a little it'd be easier for him. You are setting yourself up for more of the same if you continue hating him." She sighed. "If you expect the worst from him, that's what you will see."

It was Harry's turn to sigh and shrug. "I know that, I guess. I mean, he did come to help us with the Quirrell situation. And he was there with me in the Infirmary. He took that fall for you, Hermione. He didn't even like me or Ron. But does he always have to prance about the castle like he owns it? Sometimes he acts like he owns you too."

"Harry, see it from his perspective. You are treated differently by everyone at the castle. When you broke the rules in our first flying lesson they rewarded you with a spot on the Quidditch team. When you broke the rules to run off after Quirrell the Headmaster gave you an obscene amount of points-" Hermione spoke carefully only to be interrupted.

"Well, fat lot of good that did. Slytherin still won." Harry sulked.

Hermione shook her head sadly, "As they should have Harry, they earned their points in class as you are supposed to earn it. Not by being the Headmaster's favourite."

"Snape shows favoritism all the time. You never call him on that." Harry scowled.

"I can't speak for that but there are extenuating circumstances. Both personal and political." Hermione laid her head down on the pillow. "He's a brave man, Harry. In time, you'll come to see that. As for Draco, he's just trying to impress you the only way he knows how… the way he was raised to show superiority. It's pretty imbecilic but he has some hang up about you throwing his offer of friendship in his face."

Harry snorted, "I really doubt Draco Malfoy just wants to be friends with me. If he does then he's really bad at showing it."

Hermione smiled sadly, "Sometimes we've gotten so used to… not showing real feelings… that when we have them they surprise us… and we mess it all up." Her eyes drifted closed.

"Okay, Hermione. I'll give it a shot, if you really want me to…" His voice sounded like it was growing distant but she was only falling asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**The Royal Assassin**

* * *

**You know the drill. It's the drill that will pierce the heavens. And it will write on the sky that I don't own any of the recognized property that you may see and that I take no credit for it whatsoever.**

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5.**

* * *

Christmas morning was spent with her parents thanks to Professor Lupin. She had Christmas just the way it had always been. As silly as it was, she enjoyed having some things be the same while everything was changing. Professor Lupin stayed for a little while to have a talk with her parents. (They had insisted to get a perspective not from their daughter).

"So, Hermione, Professor Lupin tells us that not only are you top of your class but there is talk that you are taking extra lessons from one of the teachers. He's been teaching you for what reason?" John Granger gave her a penetrating stare.

She sighed, "As you know, Dad, there are some extra responsibilities I will face in the future. Professor Snape is trying to prepare me for any eventuality. We've even teamed up to solve some mysteries that have happened in the castle. I've always been safe and had teacher supervision this way. This year, there was an escape from a very secure Wizarding prison of a wanted criminal. And- and with Professor Snape's counsel I helped figure out that the man was actually innocent of the crime he was said to commit. I helped identify the man who had framed him. Using deductive logic. Like in your Sherlock Holmes books. Dad, please don't be mad. Mum, I just wanted to help everyone… I didn't want something bad to happen."

Her Mum and Dad both looked a bit cross. Mum was shaking her head. Dad had his head in his hands. Mum spoke, "And what of the teachers, Hermione? Weren't they to be the ones to make everyone safe? This is just like that time when you were eight."

She scowled, somewhat of a habit picked up from Professor Snape. "This is nothing like that. I've been working with a teacher to solve these things. Not working against them. Besides, no one in that school would have been in the same position to solve it than me. I had the best chance of doing so."

Professor Lupin spoke up, "She speaks the truth, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. She has permission from the Headmaster to conduct herself in this way. He is fully aware of their meetings. She has never gotten into any danger by simply talking with Professor Snape."

Mrs. Granger spoke first, "She always does speak the truth. Strange how that's not very comforting."

"This Professor Snape… can he be trusted around my daughter? He won't try to abuse her trust will he?" Mr. Granger added protectively.

Hermione remembered suddenly the time with the Magic Revealing Potion. The strange energy between their magic. And how he had pulled away. Not rudely, but like he knew of some distance that he had to keep. She knew he would never. She knew he had a heart under all of his armor that was broken and bleeding and yet still had no other wish than to protect. "No, he wouldn't."

Professor Lupin said exactly the same thing in almost the same way as she had.

It echoed between all four of them like a ghost of his presence could be felt in the room with them. She wondered if he would cause the lights to flicker.

Jean Granger cleared the table, trying to dispel the awkward tension created by her husband's question. She left Hermione's half eaten biscuit and almost full tea on the table. Knowing her daughter was slow to finish eating most days.

"And you, Mr. Lupin? Are you trustworthy?"

"As much as anyone with a scar like mine can be." Professor Lupin said turning his face so that John Granger could see the ragged scars. "I was just a child... younger even than Miss Granger here... when an associate of my father did this to me to teach my father a lesson. Ever since then I have had to take whatever job would have me in the Wizarding World. Currently I am surviving on the hospitality of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. And your daughter helps brew a potion every month with Professor Snape that makes sure that I don't hurt anyone when I… go through my changes… I'm a werewolf you see. So, no, I'm not really that trustworthy but I try to be the best man I can be considering my situation. I don't ever want any other child to have to suffer as I did growing up with Lycanthropy."

John Granger nodded his head, absorbing the extremely painful confession Professor Lupin had just given. "That's good enough for me. I respect a man who can honestly list his faults and take full responsibility for his situation. You have my regret, at what you have been through from your… father's sins... so to speak."

Professor Lupin examined his hands carefully as he said, "There is no need. I can barely remember any other way. But thank you… not everyone is so forgiving of my basic nature."

"More the fools them, Remus." John Granger laughed, finally reducing the tension in the room, "You seem to be a bright man. Industrious. If you could prove your worth in our world you wouldn't have to face such discrimination. Should you need another position if things don't work out at Hogwarts… I could offer you a position at our office. We could make allowances for your… sick days."

Remus shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry but that's just not possible. The Wizarding world is in my veins. It's my home. I'll make do as I've always done."

* * *

Hogwarts looked just the same as she'd left it. An unchanging monument to what it meant to be magical. Draco was smiling, happy to see her again after what seemed to her like a very short time. He rushed over to her laughing.

"I couldn't find you on the train. I had to sit with Pansy, it was horrible. Don't let that happen again. Oh, and apparently Blaise has his eye on someone. He won't tell me who. Do you think? Maybe? No, he wouldn't. Would he?" Draco was speaking rather fast by the end of his spiel.

"Would he what? Do I think what?" Hermione tried to get him to start making sense.

Draco quickly took her hand in his and led her up to the castle doors. "It's no matter, Hermione. Blaise will figure it out soon enough if he's thinking what I think he's thinking. Which he better not be, for his sake."

Hermione, not usually quick on the uptake when it came to "relationship" things put two and two together. She wrenched her hand out of Draco's grasp. They were basically blocking the entrance being only a few feet into Hogwarts proper. "Draco… We- you and m-me… We are not an item. You know that don't you? You would know if I liked you I would have said something to that effect by now or done something… I mean, I don't know who I like yet, if anyone. But I know you as a friend, just a friend."

He pulled her over to the side, next to the first set of stairs. "Hermione, of course I know that. But Blaise can't go thinking that you are available… you know that would be disastrous for many reasons."

She didn't know that. "What reasons, Draco? I am available. That may be only barely true since I don't really care to be dating right now but all the same it'd be a lie if we pretended otherwise. Who would even want to date me? I don't know if you noticed but I'm only average as far as attractiveness goes… I have teeth a woodchuck would be proud to have. My hair is impossible. And I'm not exactly a soft and warm personality on top of all that."

Draco smiled at her rant, which only made her more incensed, before saying, "You are unique. You are so bright, it lights up the room. You do your best, not because you want to look good for other people like I do, but because you want to be good enough to help people. You have made me see things I have never seen before. Do things I would have never thought of doing. You are the best friend a person like me could dare hope of having. And Blaise doesn't deserve you. You are a real Princess. That may not mean much to you. But to me, when I was a little boy I always dreamed of being lucky enough to be a dashing Prince to a regal Princess. It's probably silly of me..."

She felt her entire face heat up, "This, it's too much, Draco. I know you have had some hope about that. And I would like that to happen for you, I really would. But I don't think it's possible between us."

He looked pretty hurt by her words, though she hadn't meant to hurt him. "I've always kind of suspected that was the case. I could probably keep on hoping that someday you would change your mind. But I'm not sure who I'd be fooling. Can you at least go break Blaise's heart too?"

She laughed quietly, not wanting to break him further. "If he speaks to me about it or expresses interest you can count on it."

He walked away and she frowned. She scanned the hallway and saw Professor Snape watching her. She walked up to him.

"Did you wish to speak with me about something, sir?"

He nodded and turned to walk down the stairs to the dungeons. She followed behind, quite accustomed to the lack of any kind of talk between them within the halls.

Once settled into their usual positions and fully warded he began to speak, "You might not have wanted to break Draco's illusions just now. It might have been useful to have that possibility hanging over his head like the proverbial carrot on a string pulling the ass around."

She laughed guiltily. "I don't want to entrap Draco, sir. I think he would be a better asset to me if we have a relationship of trust. Not deceit."

It was Professor Snape's turn to laugh; only he didn't seem at all to be feeling guilty about it. "The Malfoys aren't known for their trust, Miss Granger. Draco came from them, was raised by them, he has learned very little about trust and is absolutely embedded in deceit. It was his mother's milk, his baby blanket, it's grown larger just as he has."

"I realize that. Which is why I'm letting him see another way." Hermione answered firmly.

"His attempt to manipulate you in the hall just now said enough to me about what he has learned from your example, Miss Granger. But, I have more important news. Pettigrew escaped. Those dullards at the Ministry released the spell I put on him. He crouched inside a window and turned himself into a rat. What am I saying... he just showed his true colors." Professor Snape sounded like he had had some time to come to terms with the news.

"How long ago did he escape?" Hermione asked, "Will he try to return to exact some vengeance on me.. or you?"

"On Christmas day; the Aurors felt sorry for him," Professor Snape scoffed, "No, he's a coward. He won't likely be back unless he has friends, powerful friends, to back him up. Can't even poison a person by himself."

Hermione felt panicked, "What about against my parents... would he kill them? He's killed Muggles before."

Professor Snape rested a hand on her shoulder, to calm her down. "I'll take care of it. He will have to get past my wards. Few wizards can do that. And he's not one of them. You can trust me to make them safe."

She nodded, reining in her fear. "Thank you, sir. Of course I trust you. I'll always trust you." She looked up to see his surprised face. "You have my confidence as I have yours. If you will allow me."

Professor Snape lifted his hand from her shoulder, it suddenly seemed colder in that spot. He backed up a few feet until he was leaning against his desk, letting it support his weight. "Miss Granger," He spoke with a note of warning, "You are only just recently an Occlumens. The secrets I would reveal to you…"

"I can handle them. Besides, I already figured out most of them on my own. You can trust me to keep them. Let me be your keeper. Your advocate. Your… friend." She hoped against hope that he would accept her offer.

"It is one thing for me to advise you. To teach you the knowledge and skills you will require to excel as a member of Royalty. But to ask me to… befriend… a mere thirteen year old girl."

She laughed, "Well, that's alright then. I'm a fourteen year old girl."

"My mistake." Professor Snape snarked.

"Let me put it to you this way. I'm not asking for anything right now. Or ever if you don't think it would be appropriate. But I think there is something here between us. A rapport, if you will. I think we'd make great friends. I think we'd make really powerful friends. And I'd like to have that with you if you would like it." Hermione smiled with a quirk to her mouth at the mention of being powerful friends. They really could benefit from each other. She was already benefiting from him, she was just hoping to return the favor. To quote Ron, they'd really "kick some arse" together.

Professor Snape retreated behind his desk, "It's not a matter of what I would like. As you know, I have very little in my life I have… control over… The oncoming storm with the Dark Lord is brewing. I will need to put myself at his mercy all the while being at the beck and call of the Headmaster. I doubt either of them would like you mucking up the works."

"So?" Hermione asked.

"So, I have no choice in this. You can ask me to try to live. You can learn whatever you may be able to from me. But I can never ask anything more from you than you try to learn."

She placed her hands on the desk and stared down into his eyes, they were only a few inches from hers. Maybe six at the most. "You cannot give your choices away. You set yourself up for a miserable and short existence that way. When I ask you 'do you want to be my friend'? I'm asking you… Not the Dark Lord. Not the Headmaster. So, if you do want to… You only need to let me in when you are ready."

For once, he was the first one to look away. "I do. So help me but I would like to…"

She smiled and sat back down in her seat, "Whenever you want, I will be here."

He nodded, still not looking at her. "Thank you, Miss Granger."

There was something completely different about the way he said Miss Granger then to all the other times. Something warmer, it put a flame inside her heart. He would be her friend. She felt that this was something big. It swelled inside her. She knew for the first time what overwhelming joy felt like.

She forced herself to be subdued about it so she only kept smiling brightly. He had pulled out a book he was pretending to read. She knew what pretend book reading looks like from experience. "I hope Sirius and Remus don't try to go after him. If they kill him, while it would do the world a favor most likely, they will probably get in massive trouble for it."

Professor Snape snorted, "Not a problem if you ask me. Though I doubt they would get in trouble, as you say. They would most likely receive a stern reprimand for vigilante justice and an Order of Merlin for the both of them." He looked up at her finally and raised his eyebrow, "You know, to make it obvious they didn't really care that citizens were doing things that the judging body couldn't get away with."

"That's pretty cynical."

"Try realistic. Has anything in particular about Wizarding society seemed to you to be fair?" Professor Snape sat down the book he wasn't reading.

She thought back, over every experience she had had to date in this brave new world, and came to a conclusion. "That begs the question though, doesn't it? What is fair? What's fair and what's just… How do we determine both to any satisfaction? Obviously, there is corruption. There are power structures so entrenched we cannot question them, only look to work within them. But for some, it is fair enough that the exchange rate at Gringotts is a steady rate. And that they can live and work and have a future."

"Let's not get too relativistic, Miss Granger. I would be remiss in letting the conversation turn philosophical. You may not attend the Feast if we get started down that road." Professor Snape checked his wand for the time, "Speaking of which, it should be starting soon. Any last words?"

"Not that I can recall." She said waiting for him to release the wards. He did so with ease and let her through first. They walked in silence, him behind her like a shadow. In opposition to how they had gone down earlier in the day.

* * *

Today was a Ravenclaw day so she sat down in the only free seat available next to an ashen blonde haired girl. She was reading a newspaper upside down and had on a strange necklace made of tiny acrylic carrots. Nobody else seemed to want to sit next to her or talk to her. She felt an immediate kinship with the girl. Wasn't this how she had always been seen before coming to Hogwarts?

The feast was about to start. The Headmaster was standing at the podium. "Welcome back, Everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable break, but alas we must now resume the sometimes difficult and painful task of education. But for tonight you are free to enjoy yourselves. So, what are you all waiting for? Eat!"

The Headmaster sat down in his seat and the tables were suddenly laden with food. Mostly hardy fare with a few alternate options. She reached for the salad bowl at the same time as the other girl, they both laughed.

She pulled it between the two of them so they could take turns.

"I'm Hermione." She spoke as she was pinching salad onto her plate. "I'm in third year."

The girl smiled absently, "Oh, I've seen you around. The other girls in Ravenclaw of your year are incredibly envious of your grades. Padma especially. I'm Luna Lovegood."

Hermione asked the question that was eating her up inside, "Why wasn't anyone sitting next to you, Luna?"

Luna looked up at her from her salad with her luminous eyes and spoke exceedingly matter of fact, "They think I'm crazy, of course. Just because they can't see Nargles they think they don't exist."

Hermione had naturally never read of any creature called a Nargle before but she didn't want to alienate this girl, especially since she seemed nice and harmless for the most part. "And what do Nargles look like? Where are they found? What are their weaknesses?" She did her best to sound serious and interested in the answers.

"Oh, they are mostly in the air. They like hiding in mistletoe and stealing things. They are very mischievous Nargles. Several times my books and shoes have gone missing thanks to them. I don't know of any weaknesses but my cork necklace and dirigible plum earrings can help keep them at bay."

Hermione heard a few girls titter when Luna mentioned her missing items. They had something to do with that or knew who did.

"Oh. That was… enlightening. Thanks, Luna. I'll keep that in mind should I be under any mistletoe." Hermione smiled but then turned to look at the giggling girls. Her smile fell off her face. She mouthed silently, "Not very nice. Stop."

The girls had the sense to look a bit guilty as they turned back to their own meals.

"So, Luna… Would you mind terribly studying with me in the Library? I could use someone like you with a fresh perspective on things. It gets boring with only my own thoughts sometimes."

Luna's face lit up, it was clear that pretty much nobody in her own house had even bothered for two years to reach out to the girl. Who knows how long that could have gone on without Hermione to step in and say something. "Absolutely. I would love that."

Hermione held out her hand and Luna reached out to her to shake it. "Hermione, why are you not in one of the four houses?"

Hermione thought back to her sorting, she dwelled upon her words. "It was for moments like this, Luna. I asked the hat to not sort me, in a manner of speaking, and it gave me the house of Hogwarts. I belong in and to all of the houses."

Luna only smiled in that way of hers that seemed to be transient and stared up at the ceiling at the stars. They were barely visible through the cloud cover. Moments after that they were all dismissed to their dormitories. She thought on Luna, physically she was surrounded by an entire house but she couldn't be more alone. It made her peaceful room with Crookshanks seem to be much less lonely than she had originally been seeing it.

* * *

Crooks looked up blearily from the couch, his orange paws stretched out in front of him lazily. Upon seeing her enter however he sprung up to greet her, rubbing himself all over her socks. Orange hair now becoming stuck to it. She wasn't much fussed, there was a hair removal spell for pet hair and it was worth it to get so much love from her favourite boy. "Hey there, Crooksie, miss me?"

That's when she noticed the dead rat behind her couch. It was Pettigrew. There was blood on Crookshanks muzzle and all over the floor. She backed up and screamed. He had come here, into her room… how? She was shaking all over as she reached for the floo powder on the mantelpiece.

She barely made it to the fireplace before she saw Pettigrew shift back into his human form. The bites in his neck were still the same size as if he had been bitten by Crookshanks and died from it as a human. It was the sickest sight she had yet seen. She turned away from his body and focused on putting the floo powder into the fire. "Professor Dumbledore's office"

She put her head in the fire as she had watched others do. She could see him looking very surprised to see her face showing up in the grate. "Come quickly, Professor. I think- I think there is a dead man in my dormitories."

The Headmaster flashed out of view and when she pulled her head out of the grate he was already there, bent over Pettigrew's body. "Is this how you found him?"

"Mostly, only he was still in his rat form for a while. I'm guessing before I got here. I think Crookshanks paralyzed him and let him… let him bleed to death." She broke down then and slid to the floor, holding onto the couch for support. "He must have come here to… do something to me. For revenge. Professor Snape said he wouldn't. He said it would be all alright."

Headmaster Dumbledore patted her arm in consolation but it wasn't enough. "There, there, Miss Granger. At the very least you can be thankful that your familiar was in the room and knew not to trust him. Crookshanks may very well have saved your life. That's not an average act for a pet. You have talked to Severus about this?"

"Not about the dead man. We were discussing about his escape. I was worried he would come after me or Professor Snape or even my parents. Professor Snape told me he'd set wards on my parents house. I guess he didn't think he'd come back to Hogwarts to target me. I was so stupid to think that because Professor Snape said he wouldn't… th- that he wouldn't." Hermione laid her head in devastation on the couch.

"It's not your fault, Miss Granger. You should be able to trust the adults in your life. Things like this… they shouldn't have to happen. Professor Snape promised he'd set wards on your parents house?" She heard Headmaster Dumbledore sit down on the loveseat. He must be staring at her.

She could only nod her head. He was right, things like finding a dead man that you helped catch in a murder case weren't supposed to happen to normal 14 year old girls. She'd gotten so caught up in her little plans and intrigue… her war games with her Professor… She hadn't seen this eventuality. She'd been treating it like a game. Something she could win. Something in which the rules were simple. "I'm sorry… Not for catching him, of course… but I'm sorry that it came to this… He's dead because of me. My cat killed him to protect me. If he hadn't gone after me… he'd still be alive. He'd live to maybe make up for some of the damage he has caused. If I hadn't been so clever… he wouldn't be dead."

The Headmaster cleared his throat and spoke gently to her, "Always in war… there are some casualties, Miss Granger. If not Peter Pettigrew, might it have been someone else? I too… wrestle with the guilt of what my actions have wrought. We must notify the aurors. I won't mention you or Crookshanks by name. Only that he had tried to sneak into Hogwarts and one of the familiars thought he was a common rat and killed him before he could change back. It's all true of course, that's the best way to deceive. I'll take him to my office. Goodnight, try to get some rest."

The Headmaster and Pettigrew were gone in a blink. The blood was still there. She evanescoed the floor of it where she could find it. That took several hours. Especially when she had to stop to catch her gasping breath. She felt so guilty. She might be able to scourgify the mess but she could never feel truly clean again.

Crookshanks leapt from the windowsill and tapped his head against her frozen arm. She had gone quite still. She lifted herself shakily from the floor and shambled over to her bedroom. The bed was too soft for her so she took the blankets from the bed and the pillows and made a sleeping cubbie out of the tub. She curled up inside it and silently shivered herself to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**The Royal Proclamation**

* * *

**Disclaimers still apply as per usual.**

* * *

** Major Thanks to my beta, bluefirefly5, who inspired me to get this chapter out as soon as I got back from my trip to Seattle. It was awesome by the way, PAX prime was a blast.**

* * *

Severus Snape, potions master, ex-death eater, spy, and royal adviser to the returning princess of Wizarding Britain wasn't often thrown by people. For the most part people were sadly predictable. He was contemplating the strange girl that had taken up some part of his life so easily he hadn't thought to question it. She had far more intelligence than he had seen in quite some time and on top of that she had a quality about her that didn't cause suspicion of her motives. Perhaps that was enough for him to begin to now.

Why did she want to be his friend? No one had ever wanted that, not since… Lily.

He thought about it and they shared a lot of similarities and just as many things were completely different about them. Both Muggleborns, both very bright, both caring, both powerful witches at a very young age. Lily was angelic in appearance. Miss Granger wasn't ugly by any means but there was no comparison. Lily had been his first friend. Miss Granger would befriend him when she already knew many people her own age that she could relate to. What did she see in him that he couldn't?

She had no need to suck up to him for grades, her work was always exceptional. She couldn't lack for company. Did she need him for something more than a few defense lessons here and there and as a sounding board?

And there was also the small matter of their magic. He could sometimes feel it lingering behind her in the room. He was so attuned to it by now that he could probably track her through the castle on the pieces of magic she left behind.

"Severus, my boy, there has been a break in. Pettigrew is dead." Albus Dumbledore spoke from the grate in his private quarters. "I have informed the Aurors already and they took him moments ago. However, I should like to speak with you if I may?"

"Come on through, Headmaster." Severus waved across the room somewhat mockingly. He was quite tired already and wasn't really in the mood for company. Particularly nosy old Headmasters.

Albus came through the grate as regally as he always did and sat across from him in the chintz armchair that Severus never used. "Miss Granger wasn't harmed. Physically, at least… I take it you have grown fond of her?"

Severus could not hide this from Albus. He never could quite Occlude himself fully from him, mostly because Albus read him better than anyone he knew. "She is… she is not Lily. But-"

"I understand now. You must be so lonely, Severus." Albus spoke and Severus felt his heart turn to ice.

He looked up to see Albus looking at him pityingly. "Should I tell her I don't want to be friends with her when she has been nothing but kind to me? Not even for you would I do that."

The Headmaster shook his head in response. "No, my boy, I would not ask that of you. Only, I'd like to remind you that she is only just beginning her life. In some ways you have lived more than even I have… I should not like to see you become hurt if she proves to be more fickle in her affections than you. You shouldn't place too much of yourself into her. As you said, she is not Lily."

Severus laughed darkly as he grabbed the arm she had touched with her magic. "No, she isn't Lily. She is alive. I could fight for that, couldn't I? I could have someone who gives a damn whether I live or die. Someone who isn't afraid to care about someone no matter his age or past. Could not fate finally be on my side?"

"Severus. How exactly do you feel about Miss Granger?" Albus looked so concerned that he might be having inappropriate feelings for the girl. He had to laugh, of course Albus would never trust him. He never had, why would he start now?

"Albus… do give me some credit. I have a strong affection for the girl because she trusts me. I would not want to betray that trust by being a lecherous old man. More importantly, she isn't of age. Nor does she move me as Lily had always been able to and always will." Severus turned his head away from Albus' stare. That would be all that the man would get from him.

"Always, Severus? You love Lily even now?" Albus sounded shocked that his spy could have such lasting emotions for a girl who had never reciprocated them. That maybe Severus actually had a heart under all his black armor.

Severus closed his eyes and saw her as he had always been able to when he felt alone. She was frozen in time, a beauty unrivaled by any that had come before or since. Her eyes, sparkling with light and happiness. Her hair shining in the sun a warm and inviting color. How could anyone else compare? Even now his heart skipped a beat.

He smiled, his eyes still closed. "Always. Forever."

"That reassures me to hear. I wouldn't want you to throw away your important role to play in the upcoming war for a girl you have no way of knowing would be able to love you. Even if she was above age." Albus left him sitting there with his eyes closed and his head propped against the back of the couch.

Severus was happy to have him gone as he knew that it was only a matter of time before the Headmaster would know that Severus had only said that Miss Granger did not move him as Lily had moved him. There was no way he would ever do or say anything to anyone that would contradict that. Their magic proved to him that they did move each other in some way. He wasn't sure in which way that was as of yet but there was something there.

If he could live as she had asked him to live… There was hope that he wouldn't have to be alone. It wasn't much to go with but it was enough that he might have a friend at the end of all of this.

* * *

The rest of the year was quiet. Hermione had nothing else to do but learn and that's exactly what she did. She decided by the end of the year that she wouldn't drop anymore classes and so she kept her time turner. Although, she did have to give it back to the Headmaster before leaving for the summer. She had gained an extra three month and 4 days by using the time turner and so it just so happened that she had turned fifteen by the hours but legally she still had to wait for her birthday on the 19th of September. If she hadn't used it for some extra study time and sleep then she wouldn't have aged so much faster than her peers. Already being older than them had helped keep some suspicion down. As well as not being very tall.

This summer she would be spending a week with the Malfoys at their home. She had already cleared it with her parents months ago, before Christmas break and the incident with the dead man in her room.

Over time it had become less horrible to think about. She had begun to move on and wasn't quite sure if that was a good or bad thing. It had been hard at first to even be in her rooms. She had taken to tiring herself out by studying longer with her time turner in an abandoned classroom near the dungeons. She warded the door almost as efficiently as Professor Snape by now. Ever since she had come back from Christmas break he had pushed her to try harder in her extra lessons.

Somehow, Professor Lupin had forgotten to take his potion one night while he was out of doors. Thankfully he ran off into the Forbidden Forest when he turned, chasing after another wolf he had heard according to Professor Snape. A female werewolf had been calling out there for someone to run with. She wondered if he had remembered to use protection since he forgot his Wolfsbane. She had asked Professor Snape how he knew but he wouldn't say, he just kept smirking at her infuriatingly.

Draco, Hermione, and Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy arrived all at the same time at the gate that led to Malfoy Manor. They had used a permanent portkey that was the snake head of Mr. Malfoy's cane. Mr. Malfoy tapped the gate with the cane and it opened smoothly to revealed the manicured grass and fine gravel and stone walkway up to the biggest one family home she had ever seen.

"Welcome to Malfoy Manor, Princess Hermione Granger." Mr. Malfoy spoke proudly, still walking up to the huge black doors. The house was overall white except for the doors and windows. The roof was a silvery gray. There were huge floor to ceiling windows that glittered in the mid afternoon sun. It was elegant and spoke of their opulence and riches.

She found the property to be very beautiful indeed. "It is very striking. I should say I have yet to see a house so grand. At least, not in person."

There was a lull in conversation after that. Draco mostly walked by her side looking around the grounds for something. She saw that the peacocks were out in full force as he had said they would be.

The door opened for them as if by it's own and they stepped into an entryway that would have most people in shock at how expensively decorated it was. And how large of course. "Draco will show you to your room, where you should find some garments and things that my lovely wife Narcissa prepared for you. We realize that as you have muggle parents they might not know where best to shop for a girl of your status."

She knew better than to contradict them on that point as it would just upset them so she thanked both Narcissa and Lucius before following a silent Draco up the stairs and to the right. He pointed out a door for her and then went across the hall into a different room. All without saying a word to her. What had gotten into him?

The room was well decorated, especially for a guest room, if a little bit pink and girly. Perhaps it had been for a girl they hadn't had the chance to have?

On the wardrobe she found a note with instructions on what to where when and why. It was actually rather comforting because she was sure she would have had no clue if left to her own devices. She wasn't exactly what you would call a fashion plate. They would be having lunch soon in the garden and were expecting her down there with the right outfit.

As soon as she opened the wardrobe and touched the rack she heard a bang in the room that startled her into a yelp. There was a short, ugly looking creature with enormous eyes staring up at her. "Would Miss like help with her clothes?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Tippy, Miss, one of the esteemed Malfoy family's house elves." The elf spoke in an incredibly high pitch. Perhaps it was a female of its species?

She nodded, figuring the elf was trustworthy enough. It snapped its fingers and she was dressed, with her old clothes folded neatly on the bed. The elf was also gone.

"That was really odd." She said.

"You get used to it."

She turned around and noticed Draco looking quite nice in his own robes. Hers were light and airy for the summer while still being modest. They also had a nice swish when she turned. "You didn't knock."

He nodded and smiled without remorse, "I didn't see anything so no harm no foul."

He held out his arm. "May I escort you? It would only be proper."

"I don't see the harm in it," She said as she looped her arm into his. They were the same height so it was a bit awkward to walk down the stairs like that but she managed.

In the garden there was a white iron wrought table with a glass top and a fine silver cloth covered that. Draco escorted her to her chair as his father did the same for his mother. It was almost eerie how identical the motions were. The food was served and the conversation was slightly stilted but she made the most of it. She was sure that it wouldn't be so bad the longer she was there.

"You have confirmed that Severus will be joining us this evening?" Mrs. Malfoy asked Mr. Malfoy.

"He has confirmed that he will be free this week to visit and that he would need to be back at Hogwarts after the World Cup. Why do you ask, Narcissa?" Mr. Malfoy was looking at his wife with a speculative gleam in his eyes.

Mrs. Malfoy smiled softly, "Oh, it's just that I thought it might be strained if Hermione was not comfortable with interacting with one of her professors outside of school."

"It's quite alright, Mrs. Malfoy." Hermione answered.

"Please, call me Narcissa. Mrs. Malfoy was my husbands mother." Narcissa laughed delicately, in that controlled way that people of nobility had that made laughing seem like a skill.

"As I said, Narcissa," Hermione smiled to show she was willing to follow the Malfoy matriarch's lead in this thing. "I won't be put out by speaking with Professor Snape. I'm not sure we would have much need to speak at length to one another. I will be comfortable enough to do so in any case."

* * *

She might have spoken too soon as Professor Snape was most certainly surprised to see her. Perhaps she should have mentioned staying at the Malfoys for a week for the Quidditch World Cup. As a result, dinner was… strange. She wasn't quite seeing Professor Snape the potions master but she also wasn't seeing her Professor Snape. The one that had begun to become her friend. Draco provided a buffer thankfully as he was seated next to her but with Professor Snape sitting directly across from her she kept meeting his gaze inadvertently. They didn't speak much to each other beyond the most basic of things. He had exceptionally refined manners for someone who hadn't been raised in a place like this.

Narcissa was often smiling or laughing about something he was saying. Lucius as well seemed to find him to be entertaining company. She was a little ashamed that she was still so poor at it. She should have researched etiquette a little more before coming to stay with them for a week.

* * *

He cornered her in the hallway after supper and dragged her into the Library. Her only thought was he looked much more dangerous and intimidating than usual. His hair was pulled back so you could see his high and sharp cheekbones. His mouth was pulled thin.

"You should have said something about this. Why didn't you?"

She had no good reason for it. She locked gazes with him but had nothing to say. She searched his eyes to try to determine what he might want to hear. They were an unfathomable black.

"Well? I haven't all night."

She wet her dry lips. She suddenly felt incredibly shaky and warm. "I didn't think about it. Do you not think I should be here for some reason?"

"No, you are fine for now. Depending on which way the wind blows you may need to break ties with the Malfoys in the future." He still had his hands on her arms. "Are you cold?"

Incredibly he rubbed his hands on her skin without thinking anything of it.

" I feel warm actually." She said feeling a little faint.

He waved his wand over her as he performed a diagnostic charm. "You don't appear to be sick."

She felt her arms tingle where he had stroked them. "No, I don't think I am."

She looked into his eyes searchingly, they were unreadable.

"Are you alright, Miss Granger? Your pupils are dilating." He placed one hand across her forehead. "Not feverish."

She felt light headed and grabbed his arm that had fallen to his side after checking her temperature. Her heart beat unsteadily. "I feel different. What is this?"

Professor Snape had gone quite still after she had taken hold of his arm. "It's probably nothing. You should get some sleep."

She nodded in agreement and tried to step away. She got all of two feet before she stumbled. He grabbed her arms again as she attempted to regain her balance. "Sorry. I guess I'm more affected than I thought."

His grip tightened slightly around her arms. She could feel his breath move her hair. "Steady does it, Miss Granger."

She felt the vibration from his voice coast across her back. "It's these garments. Women haven't worn anything like this in the muggle world in quite some time."

He laughed and it rose goosebumps along her skin. It wasn't as unpleasant a feeling as you might expect. She found herself wrestling with some strange impulse to lean back into him.

"I think it's best if I remove myself, Miss Granger. Lean against the wall until you can manage to walk." Professor Snape spoke and let go if her immediately after. He left her reeling in the hall with her cheeks burning.

After a few minutes she felt calm again, just like he had said, just not in so many words.

Lavender Brown would have been able to tell her what her symptoms meant. Unfortunately for Hermione, Lavender was unaware of her predicament as she was busy with her own summer feelings.

* * *

In a matter of days, the day of the Quidditch World Cup arrived. Hermione and the Malfoys were dressed to the nines for the occasion. Professor Snape was still with them much to her surprise. She would have thought she had driven him off with her clumsiness in front of him the other night. They were all situated in a private room that overlooked the Pitch. Inside the Top Box, as it is called, she noticed the Weasleys had scored seats as well as Harry Potter and the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge. Barty Crouch was supposed to be there and his house elf held the seat for him the entire time.

She met the Minister as a friend of the Malfoys and he was naturally suspicious of why the Malfoys, known blood purists, would be associating with her.

"Minister, as you are no doubt unaware of the facts regarding Miss Hermione Granger's heritage are concerned, let us just tell you that the power balance in the Wizarding World may be shifting very soon. Might you like to wish Miss Granger the best of luck for the future that would be very wise of you." Lucius Malfoy smoothly spoke of her.

The Minister looked at her dressed as immaculately as Narcissa Malfoy herself and sneered. He actually sneered right at her to her face. "This girl is going to upset the balance of power, Mr. Malfoy? She's barely lived and has no legitimate power. Elected or in-born."

She had almost opened her mouth to retort when Professor Snape spoke for her. "Look around you, Minister. She has both the Malfoys and the Weasleys willing to defend her. She has already done what shouldn't be possible according to you. What exactly would you consider to be legitimate if not that?"

Even Harry was agreeing with Professor Snape.

"I would like to make a formal announcement before the highest official in the land." Hermione spoke clearly to the room, "I, Hermione Granger, am the true wielder of the Royal Wand. I am the last known descendant of the Royal House. That is all, you may now make your protestations although they are ultimately useless."

Draco took her hand in support as she displayed her wand to an unbelieving Fudge. Before she could warn him Fudge attempted to grab her wand and it threw him into a wall which he slid down into a prostrate position. Obviously the wand was becoming more attuned to her and more rejecting of everyone else.

Molly Weasley gasped, "It's really true then. She is the Heir Apparent of the Royal House."

"Technically, Mrs. Weasley, she is the Queen Regnant of the Royal House of Granger as its only living magical member." Professor Snape corrected.

All around the room a quiet settled over them all, Hermione noticed. Such a declaration does not go unnoticed; nor is it processed lightly.

"But what does that mean really?" Harry spoke as if he didn't understand how being of Royal blood could affect things.

She sighed and looked at the green eyed boy she called her friend. "It means I'm throwing my hat in the ring. It means I'm willing to shoulder the responsibility of a country. It means, Harry, that my life will never be the same."

"Oh, well hasn't your life already changed by discovering you are a witch?" Harry asked.

Ron spoke up to his best friend, "Not like it will from now on, Harry. She will have a completely different life than an ordinary witch."

Fudge picked himself off the floor after she calmed her wand. "This just can't be possible. You must have done something or had someone do something to fake that. Is Dumbledore behind this?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore knew about this after the Malfoys and I, Minister. You can verify the wand is really the Royal wand with Mr. Ollivander. I know this must come as such a shock to you. It was the same for me as well. But I don't want to upset any carts here; just announce my regnancy." Hermione spoke calmly because she had the support of everyone in the room.

She smiled and he looked quite sour as he shook her hand in agreement.

"If all you have said is true then my office will be in touch with you. I'll have you liaison with my Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge." The Minister clearly thought she should be happy to get that much.

He would soon see that he could not push her around like that. She turned to Mr. Malfoy when Fudge had left. "I want my version of the story to run before his... What must we do?"

Mr. Malfoy bowed slightly to her. "It will be seen to immediately with whatever resources I have at my disposal."

"Okay," Ron spoke slowly and deliberately, "When exactly did Hermione become so bloody brilliant? Scary brilliant."

She beamed and caught the barest of smirks from Professor Snape. "I've had time to learn from the master."

Ron would never guess who that master would happen to be.

* * *

There was a small scare at the end of the World Cup where a few former Death Eaters got rowdy and messed with some nearby muggles. They ran as soon as the Dark Mark was seen in the sky. It was bright green and looked a lot like the one Professor Snape had on his skin. It writhed in the sky even now when the action had slowed down. She had stepped out of the Malfoys ridiculously large on the inside tent to sit on a bench outside of it and get some air. Everyone was asleep inside except for Professor Snape who was setting up his wards around the tent. He came around and saw her leaning back and staring at the stars in the sky.

He sat down next to her on the bench.

She looked over and saw him scowling at the Mark up above them. "It's strange isn't it? That as soon as they saw the Mark they tucked tail and ran. Who do you think they were who were so easily scared?"

He shrugged almost lazily, relaxing against the side of the tent. "Probably no more than children, not old enough to have taken the Dark Mark the first time around. And yet not young enough to have someone to reign them in. Somewhere in their twenties. From pureblood families. I probably taught some of them. They wouldn't know better than to run from the Mark. There isn't any running from it when you have it tattooed on your skin."

She took some time to observe him as he was in a semi relaxed state. When he relaxed his face a bit from the constant scowl and just sat down in repose he wasn't as distant and cold seeming. "What do you think will happen when we really kill him this time? Do you think the tattoo will disappear?"

"I don't think it will ever completely disappear, even with him dead and gone," He laughed mirthlessly, "There is some part of me that doesn't believe that some scars can ever truly heal." He looked over at her through his dark hair and her breath caught in her throat.

There was that feeling again. She didn't know what to make of it. "Dark magic must leave some imprint on the user… Is that what you mean?"

Still looking at her, he didn't say anything. She felt the need to fidget when the look had lasted more than a few moments. After some time had passed in which she fought not to look away from that challenging gaze he spoke, "What do you know of Dark Magic?"

She bit her lip to think a bit more deeply than usual. "Very little I'm certain because there isn't much information on it in the Library."

"It's true what they say about me, you know, I did have more knowledge of curses and dark magic by the time I entered Hogwarts than most seventh years. A blessing and a curse as it made me a target for certain Gryffindors apropos of nothing I actually did and also helped me immensely in defending against them. As another negative it did lead me into some other trouble in my youth of which you are aware." He adjusted his sleeve on the Dark Mark arm. She could see his pulse jump in his incredibly thin wrist. She wondered briefly if he was naturally thin or wasn't eating well.

"It's probably best you don't learn anything about that from me. Even if I am 'the master' as you put it." His lip twitched into a half formed smile.

She laughed, "Yes, you are. But you aren't the 'Queen regnant', as I believe you called me."

"Can you imagine me dressed like QE2? I think it'd be worse than what I hear Neville's boggart of me looked like in his Grandmother's clothes." He shuddered and cracked a grin. It made his face seem more open even with his dark as night eyes. "There is a very good reason I dress as I do. Without my robes I look about as imposing as a drowned rat."

He turned back to look up at the stars and she did as well. The Dark Mark was finally gone from the sky.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**The Royal Tease**

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**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5 from the future (Ooeeeoooh). Still not mine so you can stop writing checks to me right now. I know, I know, it so hard to resist throwing money at fanfic authors.**

* * *

She didn't realize the full extent of what she had set into motion until the first day of school. Even with the announcement of the first in a long time Triwizard Tournament it was all about her it seemed. On the Hogwarts Express while sitting in the cabin with Harry Potter, more people were looking in at her then at Harry. She smiled and waved to them every time because it didn't do any good to be seen as unfriendly. But when they left she turned to Harry and they shared a sigh at their fame.

"I should say I'm sorry they are treating you like a zoo exhibit, Hermione. But I'm just glad they are leaving me alone now. It's a fresh change of pace. So did you see the Daily Prophet has run nothing but articles about you since your announcement? They are also calling for a public apology from Minister Fudge. It must be nice having a backer that is as rich as the Malfoys." Harry laughed at the irony of her being backed by the Malfoys.

Ron's new pet owl Pigwidgeon was zipping around the compartment, much to the annoyance of everyone in it. Crookshanks just watched him with his tail flicking lazily. Not an evil wizard in disguise then. "I'll let him out in a few minutes. I'm just not sure he can make it to Hogwarts by himself from London."

Luna was with them, doing her usual job of reading the Quibbler upside down. "He doesn't bother me."

Hermione was next to the window reading some books assigned to her by Professor Snape. She was set to learn how to make Veritaserum this year. Strangely, it was an easy brew with fairly common ingredients. Of course you couldn't use it unless you had approval from the Auror's Office. Legally.

The purpose for her learning how to make it was so that she could build up a resistance to it this year. Her Occlumency was a good start according to Professor Snape, but there are multiple ways to get someone to spill their secrets. Apparently, Imperio would not work on her either unless her Occlumency walls failed.

She turned another page on the facts and history of Veritaserum to read about known people who had built up a resistance to it in the past. Not many people bothered to do so. Most of them worked in a high risk career.

More people were at the compartment door. Draco was among them. She opened the door to let him in and briefly said hello to the people outside who had never bothered to talk to her until today.

Draco slumped down into the seat between her and Luna. "It's madness out there. This might be worse than the time when everyone found out the boy who lived was on the train. No, it definitely is worse. Hey, everyone. Wait, I haven't met you." Draco spoke to Luna on his other side. "Draco Malfoy of the most Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy."

Ron and Harry snickered at Draco's pretentious greeting. Luna for her part simply laid down her paper and shook his hand. "Luna Lovegood. Daughter of the editor of the Quibbler."

Draco looked a bit taken aback that Luna wasn't more in awe of him.

"Sorry, Draco. If she's not in awe of me, I doubt she would be in awe of you." Hermione laughed. "Might you wish to go back to your compartment with Pansy?"

Draco shuddered, "She and Blaise are in there together… I don't see what he sees in her. It not like she's all that wealthy."

"Plus her face looks like a pug." Ron spoke casually.

Draco shrugged. "Good point, Weasley," Draco said, "He has no shortage of girls who would wish to date him. All they do is bicker and kiss. It's weird."

Luna had gone back to reading her newspaper and Harry was going bright red; he was so uncomfortable with the idea of kissing. Or maybe it was just the idea of Blaise kissing Pansy. She wondered idly what kissing was like but couldn't think of any boys she knew she would like to kiss her. Harry and Draco both felt like brothers to her and Ron was just an irritating prat she knew who was friends with Harry. Blaise was with Pansy apparently, and besides that he seemed to her to be untrustworthy in that sense. Who did that leave her with? Pretty much nobody her own age.

* * *

She sat down at the Gryffindor table to await the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament when she learned of a disturbance in the kitchens involving the house-elves. After seeing the way Winky was treated by her master, not to mention Dobby, she wasn't sure she should support the servitude of an entire race by eating at the feast. But she had also learned with her time with the Malfoys that most elves preferred a life in servility. As long as they weren't being abused she saw no harm in allowing it. Draco had told her that the elf that had chosen to "help" Harry was always a little strange, even for a house-elf. Often he would forget to do this or that task, or would openly do the opposite like not put Draco to bed and instead play with him until the early morning. He'd always want to hurt himself after that and wouldn't stop until getting a swift kick from the Master of the house.

She wondered if Dobby might not have some house-elf specific mental illness. Even Dobby didn't want to get paid for his work; he just wanted to have a steady supply of socks.

The Headmaster announced that they would not be having Quidditch this year on account of the Triwizard Tournament, which she had learned would be taking place from a leak at the Quidditch World Cup. There was some protesting at first until the Headmaster assured them that the tournament would fully make up for any missed Quidditch. They would be hosting students from two nearby schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Beauxbatons was from France and meant beautiful wands if Hermione's etymology skills were up to snuff. Durmstrang was a variation on Sturm and Drang, a counter movement to the Enlightenment that began in Germany. It essentially meant storm and stress and was focused on the subjective experience, the extreme of human emotions. She supposed that might be true of the students that would be coming to stay with them. One group would be focused on aesthetics and the other would be highly dramatic and deeply emotional.

Before the Headmaster could get into the details a careworn looking man came dripping into the Hall from the storm outside. His blue eye swiveled madly as it took everything in. It stared for a long time at Hermione and Harry, comparatively to the time it took in the rest of the students. The man licked his lips strangely and took out a flask from his brown leather trench coat and took a swig.

Hermione realized at once this must be the new DADA teacher, and if the pattern held this one was evil. Dumbledore announced him as Alastor Moody and she recognized him from her book of people with a resistance to Veritaserum. He was a distinguished Auror, about the farthest thing from evil as you could imagine. Probably dangerous but not incompetent or evil. Hermione was bummed to have to give up the pattern before it had really begun.

She clued in to the Headmaster's explanation of the Triwizard Tournament as he mentioned that the reason it was discontinued originally was the death toll grew to be too high.

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, alarmed, but no one gave her concerns any mind. Dumbledore tried to address that issue by claiming measures were being taken to ensure the safety of all participants. But she had seen the Thestrals this year and knew that death at Hogwarts wasn't a far off concept, it was very real. Thankfully, only of age students would get to participate. She wondered if someone could not trick the judge anyway if they were reasonably clever. Would not then the Headmaster revoke that person's ability to compete sensibly or would he allow it for some mad scheme of his?

As the rest of her Gryffindor friends lingered, drooling over the thought of the thousand Galleons prize money, Hermione left to her own dorm by herself. She was followed by an excited Colin Creevy, who took pictures of her for as long as he was able as he had to go up to Gryffindor tower.

Crookshanks met her in the room, mewling incessantly that he was left alone for so long. She picked him up and he went limp in her arms as she pet him all the way to her bed. "Y'know, Crooks. I'm starting to think you are the only sensible boy I know."

He seemed to rub against her arms at the praise as she got herself dressed for bed.

* * *

After Bubotuber Pus, Blast Ended skrewts, Lunch, and then a sensible lesson in both Muggle Studies and Arithmancy, she caught up with a loudly complaining Ron and Harry. They had apparently been assigned homework from the old fraud, Trelawney.

"Lots of homework?" Hermione spoke brightly, "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!"

Ron took that about as well as you would expect. They all crowded around in the entrance hall queuing for dinner in the Great Hall. They reached the end of the line, when she heard Draco shout out from behind them.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

Crabbe and Goyle were with him which was never a good sign. He was always a bit more of an arse when around those two.

"What?" Ron snapped already angry because of the homework.

"Your dad made it into the papers. They finally stopped printing only about dear Hermione. I don't think you'll like this bit of news though."

He shoved the paper at Ron a fair bit roughly, and smirked as Ron read it to himself. Ron looked up and growled, "They couldn't even get Dad's name right."

Draco laughed, "I know, that's the part I especially liked. It's almost as if he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?"

She shook her head sadly at how Draco was acting, but she knew that it would be worse if she wasn't here.

When Ron got to the end he was bright red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Did you see the picture of your parents outside that thing they call a house? Look at them standing there, your mother looks like she could lose a bit of weight."

Ron was shaking with fury by now. Everyone was staring at him.

"Malfoy, just get stuffed, alright, " Harry said, "C'mon Ron…"

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" Draco sneered. She knew this could go nowhere good so she spoke up.

"Enough!" She said as Draco and Harry were both about to speak, "You two bicker more than an old married couple."

Draco turned his attention to her in shock that she would say something so horrible. "I'm not in love with Harry Potter! Why does everyone keep saying as much?"

At least it had distracted him from fighting with Harry and Ron. "I don't know, maybe you guys have a Pansy and Blaise kind of thing? It's been known to happen." At this point she was just playing with him.

Draco looked a bit green at the thought of him and Harry like he had seen Blaise and Pansy. "I know this might seem unbelievable since I haven't had a girlfriend but I'm not gay. I like girls."

"Sure," She said slowly, "Name one."

She winked at him, knowing he couldn't mention her or he would have to admit he was turned down by her the year before. He looked down and shuffled his feet. He mumbled something but she couldn't hear it. It looked like he was saying 'no one else' though. Or was that 'Ramona Felts'?

"It doesn't really matter who I like, so long as everyone stops saying I like Harry Bloody Potter!"

Harry feigned a hurt expression, "You wound me, Malfoy. I thought we really had something up on the Astronomy Tower. You are just like all the rest. You get what you want out of sweet innocents like me and then leave."

Harry sniffled a little to make it more humiliating for Draco.

"You bloody pillock! I did not use you, Potter!" Draco snarled. "What am I saying? This is stupid. We are both two straight guys alright. We don't have any sexy feelings for each other."

Hermione laughed with the rest of the hall. "Oh come on, Draco. You have to admit Harry is a little cute."

Draco gave her an ice cold glare from his grey eyes. "I will do no such thing."

Draco was gripping his wand tightly when she felt something warm graze her cheek and then suddenly, Draco was on the floor as a ferret. She had turned to go into the Great Hall. Did he cast a curse at her when she turned her back on him?

"OH NO YOU DON'T LADDIE!"

Hermione turned back around to see Professor Moody limping down the marble staircase. He had his wand out and pointed at Draco, the ferret. The pure white ferret was shivering on the floor exactly where Draco had been standing.

Moody turned to look at her as everyone in the hall was struck silent. His real eye pierced into her as the blue one was looking behind him. She could feel him trying to search her mind but all he got was mundane memories of her classes that she'd had today.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled low and gravelly.

Hermione looked back behind Moody at Draco on the floor. "No," she spoke uncertainly, "He must have missed."

"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted as Crabbe tried to pick up the shivering ferret. His eye must have been be magical and could see out of the back of his head.

"This- This isn't necessary Professor Moody." Hermione spoke, coming to Draco's defense.

He ignored her and began limping to a very scared looking ferret and Crabbe and Goyle. Draco tried to make a run for it, but he didn't get very far as Moody skyrocketed him up into the air and let him fall back down on the hard stone.

"You'll hurt him. Stop!" She shouted to no avail.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponents back's turned," Moody growled as he smacked Draco over and over again into the castle floor as he made noises of pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do…"

Draco flew through the air not on a broom this time but as a ferret. He couldn't control his flailing movements and squeals of fear and pain.

"Never- do- that- again-" Moody said one word each time Draco hit the stone floor and flew back upwards again.

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice that she recognized as Professor McGonagall.

Hermione's eyes pivoted to where Professor McGonagall was coming down the stairs carrying a load of books.

"Professor!" Hermione spoke loudly, "Professor Moody transfigured Draco into a ferret and started hurting him. I told him to stop but he wouldn't."

"Lousy snitch," Moody growled, "I'm only teaching him a lesson for attacking other students when their backs are turned."

"TEACH-" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms. "No!"

Professor McGonagall ran down the stairs and pulled out her wand. A moment later, after a loud snapping noise, Draco had reappeared. His face was bloody and he couldn't get up from the floor because he was stunned, possibly having broken bones.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" Professor McGonagall said weakly, now checking over Draco's injuries. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock-"

"You broke a lot of his bones! We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at a bloody Draco with great dislike.

Draco, whose pale eyes were watering with pain from his position on the floor, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable. Blood came out of his mouth when he did so and stained the cobblestone.

"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, his wooden leg echoing dully in the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy… You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son… you tell him that for me… Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"

"Yes," Draco poke painfully through his quickly swelling jaw.

"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape… Come on you..."

But before he could drag Draco, who couldn't even rise to his feet, off down to the dungeons Professor McGonagall interfered.

"You've done enough, Moody." She conjured Draco a stretcher and floated him on to it and then floated the stretcher away and to the Infirmary.

Hermione picked up the Professor's fallen books and walked off after her. She met up with them in the Infirmary and was thanked for trying to stop the attack on the student and for bringing the books.

"How is he?" Hermione asked with worry to the Gryffindor Head of House.

Professor McGonagall looked especially stern as she said, "He'll be better in a few days. I'm not sure what we shall do about Professor Moody, however, something like this won't go unnoticed by the board of governors… nor should it."

Hermione was thinking about it and wondered if this was unusual behavior for the man, for which she asked as much.

"He's always been a little touchy… I can't say really. You should get to dinner, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall shooed her off before Hermione could ask anymore.

* * *

Her Thursday lesson with Professor Moody arrived without incident. She wondered how exactly he was keeping his job when he had attacked a student blatantly in the halls. Draco was out of the Infirmary, thankfully, and she stood beside him holding his hand. He was her friend and she wouldn't let some ex-Auror push him around. She had seen Draco holding his wand but she hadn't seen him lift it when she felt the curse graze her. Which meant that someone else had cast the curse. If Draco had cast it, he would have landed it. Trying to convince the rest of the school of that when they thought Moody was the coolest teacher ever was next to impossible. So she would have to find some other way of getting rid of him.

By the end of the lesson she was absolutely positive that she couldn't let him continue to teach, no matter what anyone thought. He had shown them the Unforgivable Curses. And he had liked it as he had hurt not only the spiders, but also Neville and Harry; two boys by which that demonstration would most affect. She almost kept him from having tea with Neville, she was so sure he was bad news to everyone at this school.

Of course she had no proof so she had to bite her tongue for now. It would have to be some proof if even using a student as a living bouncy ball didn't move them.

So, she conferred with her adviser after a very quick dinner in which she claimed she was rushing off to the Library. She was not going to the Library, but was instead going down to the dungeons.

Professor Snape was quick to drag her into the room and close the door. They warded the room together.

Once she sat down in her seat and he was giving her his full attention she spoke, "If my pattern is true then Professor Moody is evil. He tried to frame Draco Malfoy for cursing me and then turned Draco into a ferret and bashed him against the stone floor. He takes joy in using the Unforgivables against defenseless animals. And he is plotting something and using Neville as some pawn for his gain. He was brokering favor with Neville this afternoon after nearly causing Neville to have a panic attack in class by using the Cruciatus curse right in front of him. I'm not sure what his plan is but there is always a plan. I've been at Hogwarts long enough to know that."

Professor Snape leaned back against his desk as she spoke. He was clearly thinking very carefully about what she had said so far. "Why do you think he targeted you for his hallway stunt with Draco and not Potter?"

She smiled widely, "Well that's obvious isn't it? Not only had I defused the tension between Draco and Harry by making it about something as ridiculous as Draco and Harry being lovers… But I was also someone of importance somehow to this plan of his."

He smirked, "You are taking a lot on the faith that Moody has some evil plan. I've known Moody awhile, and while he is a bastard enough to injure a student, I don't think he has any nefarious plans."

"Well, Draco didn't curse me." Hermione defended.

Professor Snape looked at his fingernails as if the conversation they were having was terribly boring. "How sure of that are you? Haven't you two had a falling out before?"

She had to give him that, there was every chance that no one would believe that Draco hadn't cursed her even if they had been looking at his wand at the time.

"If he had been angry enough to curse me with my back turned… He wouldn't have missed. Draco may be many things but a bad shot he is not." She spoke with a smile of victory on her face. There was no way he could deny that was evidence.

"What if he changed his mind at the last second and that's why it missed?" Professor Snape countered expertly.

She was stumped, that actually was a pretty sound explanation. "But, he didn't seem guilty when we talked in the Infirmary. He was actually really confused about the whole event and remembered being very calm for a second before he was suddenly a ferret."

Professor Snape lunged toward her before she had time to react. "You said he felt calm? Are you absolutely certain of that?"

She could only nod as he was looming over her.

He stepped back laughing. "Of course he felt calm. How silly of me to forget one way Draco Malfoy could both be the one to cast the curse AND not be guilty of the crime. He then taunted you and Draco both in the next lesson you had with him by teaching you about the Unforgivable Curses."

"Imperio," Hermione whispered, "But, we can't prove that Professor Moody was the one to do it, can we?"

Professor Snape growled and it sent shivers down her spine. "Unfortunately, no. He's got a watertight alibi for why he has Unforgivables on his wand because of the classes he's teaching."

She disliked it when they needed to wait for more evidence to present itself. "Then our course is clear. We must not give our suspicions away at the same time that we are keeping watch on him. Also, I will need stronger wards on my room that can keep out Professor Moody. I'm not sure I can do that yet."

He nodded and lit the fire in the grate on his office. They both stepped through and were in her dorm. He quickly set about erecting his personal blend of wards. She sat down on the couch to watch as he worked them into the existing wards already on the room, overwriting the exception made for Professor Moody as a teacher. Crookshanks quickly found her lap and began purring, not at all concerned with Professor Snape moving about the room. Around twenty minutes later he sat down on the love-seat and pocketed his wand in his sleeve. "That will probably keep out most intruders. Of course it's still ineffective against Animagus' but there isn't yet a ward invented effective against them. Should I survive this war that will be something I will look into for the future."

He sighed and leaned his head against the back of the love-seat. Obviously he was working himself thin but still found her company to be safe enough to relax his guard from its usual state. "It's not paranoid if they really are out to get you, eh?"

He chuckled out loud at her joke. "Something like that."

Crookshanks jumped off of her lap and settled himself on top of Professor Snape's instead. She held her breath until he began petting her cat. She was worried he'd throw Crookshanks off of him. She guessed that she was being foolish to think that.

"I owe this cat a lot, you know, he kept you safe." Professor Snape spoke comfortably from his spot on the love-seat, ensconced with her pet. "He might yet save you again."

She wondered if she was being silly by thinking she could kiss him as he sat there with his eyes closed. She didn't want to do it just to know what it was like, especially when it would probably ruin his life. She owed him too much to act on the strange feelings she was feeling about him. But she wanted to anyway and that sent a rebellious thrill through her even though she never left her seat.

She was just smiling softly as she stared upon his relaxed face when his eyes suddenly opened and met hers. She felt her stomach drop out from beneath her as if she had just gone down the highest point in a roller coaster. When he smiled back just as softly she found herself soaring as if she had taken wing. It was such a sweet and unguarded expression that she felt sure she could never act on this strange thrumming between them while she was yet underage. No matter how much she wished it to be different, she would have to try to repress these fledgling feelings or suffer for them for however many years it would take to either be free to act on them or have them go away.

Something of those feelings and thoughts shone through as she let down her walls for him. He took a startled intake of breath, before he simply nodded his head and extracted himself from her cat.

As he was standing before the grate, he looked back at her with a genuine smile. "I don't deserve the kind of friendship you've shown me, Miss Granger. But, for what it's worth, I will try to be as honorable as you are. Until we speak again."

He was through to his office when she wondered if he was hinting he felt similarly to her. If he did, she was not sure she would ever be successful in repressing how she felt around him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**The Royal Champion**

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**All I own is my keyboard and computer that I use to write this. As such, I claim no legal rights or ownership over this fan fiction.**

**This has been beta'd by the intriguing bluefirefly5, go visit her profile to find a large collection of stories under her favourites, I promise you won't regret it.**

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Over the next couple of weeks their DADA lessons became progressively harder, especially for Hermione. Knowing what she did it was hard on her to remain calm in the disconcerting presence of Professor Moody. Meanwhile, Harry was worried about his scar hurting him and was keeping in touch with Sirius; who was glad to hear that Moody had recently come out of retirement. Wasn't that just too convenient? She wondered about the problem at his residence that Arthur Weasley had helped him out with. What didn't she know about that that would open up this case?

To the rest of the classes surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.

"But- but you said it's illegal, Professor," Hermione said playing the goody two shoes to great effect. Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large space in the middle of the room. "You said- to use it against another human was-"

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," Moody spoke, his magical eye swiveling onto her and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way- when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely- fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."

He pointed his gnarled finger at the door. Hermione wouldn't be so easily intimidated, so she said, "I didn't say I wouldn't want to learn how to resist it, Professor. I just wanted to be sure it was cleared with the administration first. After Draco - I wasn't sure you had had the time to learn the rules here."

Harry and Ron were looking gobsmacked at her defiance of a teacher. Had she never done that before? She guessed they hadn't seen how she had handled Trelawney.

Moody just grinned in that way of his that looked more akin to a snarl and began to beckon students forward in turn. He put the Imperius Curse upon them, and one by one they did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing God Save the Queen. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics that he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.

"Granger," Moody growled, "you next."

Hermione moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Hermione, and said, "Imperio!"

With her walls up she felt something from the outside trying to push its way in. She smiled and asked, "Why isn't it working, Professor?"

He began to sweat as he pushed harder at her walls. His grimace was so very satisfying to her. And to me. She stood there calmly behind her walls as she thought of perhaps countering his Imperio back at him. She decided not to risk it as she didn't want him in her head. She could hear him muttering something aloud now that he had become so frustrated.

"What was that, Professor?" She asked politely.

He stopped trying to Imperius Curse her and spoke gruffly, "I said; you'll never learn if you don't take down your walls. So, take them down."

She nodded in compliance after she had secured her inner walls and let down only the first layer. He tried again and she felt the strangest sensation for only a moment before her mind began to clear. It was like going through the vacuum of space, untouched by gravity. Her worries began to leave her and so she grabbed onto them as lifelines. She held onto her self, her sense of purpose.

Moody spoke from some distant chamber of her mind: _Bend down… Bend down..._

She felt the command go through her, but she let it go without doing anything. **Why would she need to bend down?**She heard another voice speak, maybe it was hers. **If she bent down she would not be fit to rule.**

_Bend down…_

**No, I will not bend down,** said the voice, **You bend down.**

_Bend down! NOW!_

She resisted the command and instead turned to look directly into Moody's eyes as she pointed at him. She heard a commanding voice inside her that spoke much louder than Moody's.

**You bend down before me! I command you as Queen of all British Witches and Wizards to BEND TO ME NOW!**

To the shocked gazes of everyone in the room, Moody laid down his wand and bent down to Hermione Granger as she looked upon him calmly. She hadn't even taken out her wand to do so, and she had countered the Imperius Curse. With him resting painfully on his knees she said, "I bend for no one, Professor Moody."

She stopped the curse with a blink of her eyes and Professor Moody stood back up, using some desks behind him as support. "They'll certainly have trouble controlling you, Granger. Did the rest of you see that? It's in the eyes, that's where you'll see it. Now, ordinarily, she would not have been able to reverse the curse but Granger seems to be a rather strong Occlumens for a girl her age. Simple mind tricks like Imperio are ultimately going to be useless against her. It would do none of you any good to start learning to Occlude now as it takes a very good master to learn Occlumency. Someone like Dumbledore or, perhaps, Snape."

She gave no indication of which one, if any, had taught her to occlude.

"Potter," Moody changed subjects suddenly, "You next."

Harry almost broke the Curse the first time he was put under; he instead launched himself head first into the desks rather awkwardly. After four times, and constant praise from Moody (obviously he was buttering Harry up for something in the future), Harry was able to completely resist the curse. Ron was not so lucky and was still skipping on every alternate step.

* * *

After depositing her bags in her dorm room at the end of Potions on Friday of the thirtieth of October, she headed back down to the entrance hall with the others to await the delegations from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. She had on a fine black cloak, her Hogwarts uniform with its simple black tie with the Hogwarts crest embroidered on it, and her usual think leggings and Potions boots. She didn't see why she shouldn't wear sensible shoes for a class as potentially dangerous as Potions. The boots were dragonhide, specifically from a Hebridean Black, and were shiny yet very tough.

The Heads of Houses were ordering students into lines and she wondered for a moment which line she should go into, before Professor Snape pointed at her and then at the line of Slytherins. He went down the line and corrected several of them on their wardrobe. Mostly he just made sure they were clean and professional looking. First years were in front and then the rest of the years in that order. They were also lined up alphabetically according to their last name within their year.

They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. She waited patiently, unlike many others who immediately began talking, Ron among them. She couldn't quite make out was he was saying to Harry, but it sounded like he said something about the train.

After a time, when most of the students had begun to get antsy, the Headmaster spoke, "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

Hermione strained her eyes to see a rather large shape approaching over the tops of the trees of the Forbidden Forest. It was moving at a very fast clip, and soon she saw what appeared to be a large house-sized carriage pulled by twelve large palomino horses, each the size of an elephant. The first three rows backed up as the carriage drew ever lower and closer to them. It landed with an almighty crash as the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A short moment later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.

On the carriage door was a coat of arms bearing the symbol of Beauxbatons; two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars. The door opened swiftly to reveal a boy in pale blue robes, who jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. The boy from Beauxbatons sprang back respectfully to reveal the largest foot Hermione had ever seen next to Hagrids'. This time it was in a shining, high-heeled black shoe the size of a child's sled. And then she saw the rest of the woman. The size of the carriage and horses immediately became explained. A few people gasped as if they had never seen a person so large, even though Hagrid wasn't much taller or shorter.

As her face touched the light it could be seen to be a fairly handsome visage. Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on their toes to better gawk at this woman who was no doubt the Headmistress of Beauxbatons.

She smiled graciously and walked forward, offering her hand to Headmaster Dumbledore. He had barely to bend to kiss it when he was yet a very tall man himself.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he spoke. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," Madame Maxime said in a beautiful deep, alto voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," Dumbledore replied.

"My pupils," Madame Maxime said, waving one of her enormous hands behind her carelessly.

Hermione had been focusing on the interaction between the Headmaster and the Headmistress of Beauxbatons closely, so she was somewhat surprised to notice about a dozen boys and girls behind them. All in their late teens, by the look of them, they were standing behind Madame Maxime and were shivering in their fine silk clothes. None of them were wearing cloaks. She wondered what they thought Scotland would have been like in October if not cold.

After briefly assuring Madame Maxime that her horses would be well taken care of by their Care of Magical Creatures professor, the delegation left to warm up inside the castle instead of waiting for Durmstrang to arrive.

Out of the lake came a magnificent ship that appeared to be dragged from Davy's Locker itself. The dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. It glided toward the bank and, a few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.

For a moment she thought they were all built like Crabbe and Goyle… but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, she saw that the bulk was really cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing cloaks of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

Dumbledore and the man exchanged pleasantries by which it became known that he was called Professor Karkaroff. She wondered if not it should be spelled Karkarov, but it was no matter. As soon as he was able he lead a young man away, that she was sure she had seen before. A boy called Viktor Krum. She felt some remnant flutter inside her at seeing his prominent nose.

As soon as people recognized him, they went mad. Girls began frantically searching their pockets for a quill and wondering if he would sign their hat in lipstick. Lipstick, honestly. He was just a Quidditch player.

She passed by all the mad people and went inside to the Great Hall, sitting down next to Draco at the Slytherin table. She saw Pansy trying to flutter her eyelashes at Krum, much to Blaise's annoyance. She caught Blaise's eye and mouthed silently, "Typical girl."

Blaise shrugged in that unaffected way he had mastered and waited for whatever was next to come, with his usual above it all expression.

Krum sat down across from Draco so she had to deal with even more eyes on her than usual, and just when it had begun to calm down too. Draco, of course, couldn't resist such a prime time to introduce himself.

"Draco Malfoy of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy." Draco smarmed. She snorted and looked at Viktor Krum through Draco's blond head. He was rather awkward looking, wasn't he?

"He gets like this sometimes. Just shake his hand and appear flattered to have met him." Hermione joked.

"Oh?" Krum seemed surprised and took Draco's hand and smiled while shaking it enthusiastically. "Like this?"

She smirked. "That was perfect."

Draco pouted a bit at the fun she was having at his expense.

Viktor Krum now gave her more attention. "And who might you be?"

He didn't sound like he had a head cold at all as far as she could tell. Karkaroff probably lied to give Viktor preferential treatment. "Hermione Granger. Of course I already know who you are. It would have been hard to miss with all the girls screaming and pointing at you."

He laughed bashfully, "I vish they vouldn't do that."

She chuckled with him, "Trust me. I know."

He looked at her curiously until a light seemed to pop up over his head. "Oh! I've heard about you. You are the new Queen of Britain. Her-my-oh-knee Granger. They ran a couple of articles on it in our papers as vell."

She smiled, "It's mostly a ceremonial role, for now, I'm yet too young to make any declarations. This is my best friend, Draco. He and his family have been of great help to me in this new course of my life. Over there is Blaise Zabini, another good friend, and his girlfriend Pansy Parkinson. At least, I think they are formally going out."

Again, all Blaise did was shrug. Pansy bristled a little to be introduced as just Blaise's girlfriend, or maybe she hadn't wanted Krum to know that at all. After a brief speech from Dumbledore, the food was served. She ate sparingly as she was still a bit guilty about using an enslaved race for her own benefit, even if they did prefer it that way.

After Ludo Bagman and Mr Crouch joined them, Dumbledore began his explanation of what would happen during the Triwizard Tournament. As a large, jeweled casket was brought forward he explained about the three tasks each participant would need to complete. And that three champions would be chosen, one from each school. The champion with the highest total after the last task would be named Triwizard Champion and would receive the prize money and the Triwizard Cup.

"...The champions will be selected by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

They would have twenty-four hours to write in their names and their school on a piece of parchment and place it into the Goblet for consideration. This was the time when watching Professor Moody closely would be of benefit. If he did anything over the next twenty-four hours they would know of it. She would have to find someway to track Moody through the castle without him knowing of it.

She knew just who to contact with an inquiry of that scale. Sirius Black and, if that failed, Remus Lupin.

* * *

She received a parcel back with a book within hours of writing to them. Inside was a letter and it contained a spell from which she could make a map of the entirety of Hogwarts. Remus explained it was a variation on some wards within Hogwarts itself that allowed for a map of that sort to be made.

She looked over the spell and noticed some flaws in its design, for which she corrected easily with her Arithmancy knowledge and Spell Theory. Now, it should recognize between two people of the same name if one was younger and the other was older.

After another hour she had a working map that she could get to Professor Snape, who would be able to move freely while she couldn't during the night. She stuck her head in the grate and floo called him. She could see him on the other side, grading papers, if he hadn't been alone she wouldn't have been able to make the call.

He looked up from his grading at her with his eyebrow raised. "What is it at this hour, Miss Granger?"

"I have something remarkable to show you. Yep. It will help us catch him out." She spoke vaguely, not sure if his office was currently warded.

"Let me through." He said standing up.

She backed out of the grate and waited for him to appear. She held out to him when he came through, clearing the soot off his robes with an impatient flick of his wand, the map with the entirety of Hogwarts printed on it and the names of everyone in it, tracking across its surface.

He looked at it in understanding. "So, this was how they did it. Fascinating. Remarkable work for ones such as them."

"I may have improved upon it," She smiled, "A little bit, anyway."

He sat down to look over the map. "I don't see Alastor Moody on here anywhere."

She frowned, "That is strange. I don't think I cast the spell wrong. No, see look, we are here where we are supposed to be. I see Harry and Ron inside Gryffindor Tower. The Headmaster is pacing in his office. Now, where is Moody?"

They scoured over the map and couldn't see Moody anywhere. "Maybe he's in an unplottable location within Hogwarts. That's a flaw of the map I couldn't mitigate."

Suddenly, Professor Snape became very still. She wondered just what he could be seeing that was causing him to have that reaction.

"What is it?" She said, startling him out of his frozen state. He stared at her, he seemed paler than ever before.

"It's happening. He's moving his pieces."

"Who? Who is moving his pieces? Moody?" She asked, taking hold of his unmarked arm.

He looked down at her and began to shiver. "No, it is the Dark Lord. He has his servant at this school. And this time, I can't do anything about it. If I do I will be outed as a spy. I'm sorry. Hermione. I'm sorry."

Before her very eyes, the map and the paper with the spell combusted.

"Don't do anything tonight. It is too dangerous for you out there. When the time comes, I will do what I can. But we cannot play my hand too soon or all might very well be lost." Professor Snape seemed incredibly shaken, so much so that he had taken hold of her hand.

"Please, just tell me who you saw. It's killing me." She pleaded with him to see the reason in telling her.

"Someone who should still be in Azkaban. Someone who is one of the Dark Lord's most loyal servants. If I tell you will you promise not to do anything?" He gave her a penetrating stare and she nodded her compliance.

"Alastor Moody wasn't on the map because Alastor Moody isn't Alastor Moody anymore. He's being imitated by a man who thought it fun to torture Mr. Longbottom's parents, along with the mad witch Bellatrix Lestrange, Bartemius Crouch Jr." Professor Snape spoke quietly, "So you can see why I must not stop his plan. If I catch Barty, who is most certainly on orders from the Dark Lord himself, I am a dead man. And we mustn't have that. This is the year he will return."

She wasn't going to argue with that. She saw his reasoning clearly and it did make perfect sense. They couldn't go to Dumbledore either as he was already preparing for the inevitable final battle between the forces of good and evil. She could not take him herself, she was sure, since Professor Snape had warned her against trying. "So, we are finally backed into a corner, huh? Well, this isn't fun. After all that planning and now what? We give up?"

"No," Professor Snape said lowly, "We plan so that we can make his return as bearable as we can. I will begin by assessing my chances of convincing Barty that I'm on his side and that I want to do whatever it takes to resurrect the Dark Lord. Failing that we will put safeguards on you and Mr. Potter. Whatever his plan is, we will prepare for it the best we can."

She leaned back into the couch with a sigh, its leather making a slight creaking sound. "What do you think the chance is that we can get through this without anyone dying?"

He sat beside her silently for a few moments before he spoke, "Zero. Foolish optimism never did anyone any good."

"That's what I thought." She spied him out of the corner of her eye. He looked tense and angry, but he was leaning back into the couch with his thin legs stretched out in front of him. "When this is all over…"

He looked over at her questioningly. She couldn't really say why, but something in his gaze stopped her from finishing her thought. She placed her hand between them, palm side up, and did not say another word. For a moment she feared he would sneer and leave. He looked at her meaningfully as he slid his hand slowly over to cover her own. Her heart felt like it stopped dead in her chest.

She made a small intake of breath before she smiled and entwined her fingers with his. Surely, no one could fault them for simply holding hands. Well, perhaps they could at that, but she wasn't going to quibble over it in the moment. She saw him smile slightly back at her and she knew this would be okay. Somehow, tomorrow was so far away. Her fears for the future would just have to wait.

* * *

Tomorrow came at the same pace as it always did, one second per second. Good one. She tried, futilely, to convince Fred, George, and Lee Jordan that an Aging potion would probably not work to confuse the Goblet of Fire. Let them be stupid. And for a moment, she feared she would have to eat her words. But both Fred and George were blasted out of the golden circle around the Goblet. After a loud popping noise was heard, they were sporting identical long white beards.

After they left to see Madame Pomfrey, by Dumbledore's suggestion, the Great Hall filled with chat about which over seventeen students would be trying their hand at the Goblet. Warrington of Slytherin was mentioned, she didn't think he had much of a chance in all honesty. Angelina Johnston of Gryffindor, she was a chaser for their team and a fairly solid student besides. And, of course, Hufflepuff was all abuzz for Cedric Diggory. She hadn't heard a peep about any contenders from Ravenclaw, which wasn't so very strange since a tournament by itself didn't hold much appeal for them, as a whole.

After a day spent with Hagrid, Ron, and Harry, in Hagrid's hut, where she had almost gotten him to let slip about the first task, it was time to head back to find out who the three champions were. Hagrid was behaving rather oddly, as if he was trying to impress some lucky overlarge lady that had recently arrived on the scene. He was distracted by the lady Giantess and followed her up to the castle instead of walking with the three of them. She shrugged, realizing it was his prerogative if he wanted to come over all moon-eyed.

The feast was the second one in a matter of days so no one was overly eager to eat, as most just wanted to know who would be named champion. After what seemed like ages, the plates disappeared and the Headmaster began talking. The Goblet was not yet ready to decide, so Dumbledore explained what the chosen three would have to do when their names were called. After he finished explaining, he took out his wand and extinguished all the flames in the room, except that which was in the Goblet and the candles in the floating pumpkins.

After a tense few seconds she saw the flames go red. On a tongue of flame, a parchment was carried through the air and snatched up in the Headmaster's hand.

When Viktor Krum was announced as Durmstrang's champion, the Great Hall went wild with applause. She smiled at him from across from her, and spoke loudly so he could hear her, "Good Luck!"

He walked slouching away from Slytherin table, and into the next chamber behind the Head Table.

Karkaroff boasted loudly for the whole hall to hear, and she wondered exactly why Viktor seemed to be his favourite. Besides the matter of his international fame as a quidditch player.

Next was the Beauxbatons' champion, Fleur Delacour. She had most of the boys in the room bug-eyed and panting. It was rather disgusting to witness.

Cedric Diggory became the Hogwarts' champion, and then something strange happened; she supposed this was it, the fire turned red once more in the goblet and spit out one more name, Harry Potter's. She wasn't shocked, she had expected this, but she was still hoping Dumbledore would just throw away the slip of parchment and tell Harry he couldn't possibly compete due to his age. Instead he called his name as if he was any other champion. Except for his serious expression, she wouldn't have been able to tell that Dumbledore hadn't arranged for this to happen himself.

Harry got up and walked through the door as if he was walking to the gallows. And maybe he was. He was probably too young by far to face these tasks, plus whatever Barty Crouch Jr had in store for him. And yet Dumbledore said and did nothing. And she was by necessity also complicit in saying and doing nothing. Except, she had a plan to make sure he wasn't facing this alone. She very much doubted Dumbledore had anything like that. She would put all her effort into preparing Harry for the tasks as best as she could. She couldn't have him die because she was too weak to act.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**The Royal Nutcracker**

* * *

**Disclaimer. Also, beta'd by bluefirefly5.**

* * *

As far as the entire school was concerned, Harry Potter had been clever enough to trick the Goblet into accepting him as a competitor. Even Ron, Harry's very best friend, wasn't speaking with him because he thought Harry had done it. She couldn't tell them why she knew it wasn't him, because telling them that when they had such unguarded minds was pure folly. She tried to explain to Ron that if Harry said he didn't do it, then he didn't do it. She tried to convince Ron that Harry wasn't the kind of friend to lie about something like that. But Ron was too busy having a bruised ego to listen to her. And, frankly, after an entire week of saying that... she was just too tired to try anymore.

So, mostly, she reassured Harry that she knew he hadn't done it in that practical way of hers. It was obvious that he hadn't, even if you didn't know who did. She had to wonder sometimes if everyone at Hogwarts was brain-dead. She knew she was really no replacement for Ron, however, as she wasn't around enough to be that close of a friend. Ron slept in the same dorm as Harry, they were best friends. And yet he couldn't get past his own pride to see Harry was hurt by him not believing the truth. Of course, Harry couldn't just come out and say how he felt to Ron. That would be crazy. Boys.

Draco had jumped on the bandwagon and had made some badges that read: Potter Stinks and Support Cedric Diggory, the REAL Hogwarts champion. That drove Harry over the edge and after an insensitive comment by Draco about Harry's mum, Harry tried to curse him. Draco cursed him at the same time. Their spells ricocheted off one another and Harry's hit Goyle while Draco's hit Hermione.

She felt a horrible pain in her mouth, and she watched in mortification as her front teeth grew past her chin. She cried out in panic as everyone looked on. Draco, for his part, looked truly remorseful.

"And what is all this noise about?" She heard a soft, deadly voice speak from behind her. She relaxed slightly at the sound of it.

All of the Slytherins rushed to explain but Professor Snape pointed to Draco and said, "Explain."

"Potter attacked me, sir-"

"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.

"-and he hit Goyle- look-"

Professor Snape examined Goyle, whose face had grown into what looked like the bottom of a forest floor with many fungal growths sprouting off of it.

Professor Snape rose his eyebrows, and she felt sure he was holding back laughter as he spoke calmly, "Hospital Wing, Goyle,"

"I hit Hermione, Professor." Draco finished guiltily.

Professor Snape turned to her and she prepared herself to hear whatever he would have to say. She stuck her chin out and her teeth now made it past her collar they were so long. She could hear Pansy, who had never liked her, laughing cruelly in the background. He looked not at her teeth at all and instead bored into her eyes as he spoke without inflection, "I see no difference."

She felt the sting of tears in her eyes, it had worked, she had made herself cry by keeping her eyes open long enough. She took off for the Hospital Wing at top speed. She didn't hear the rest of what was said, thankfully, or she would have gotten angry at Harry and Ron for calling him names.

Madam Pomfrey sat her down across from Goyle, and Hermione gave Goyle a sardonic grin. "Sucks to be around those two, doesn't it?" Although she said it with a lisp as she couldn't quite speak properly with her teeth as they were.

"Tell me about it." Goyle said as Pomfrey was collecting large bunches of fungus off his face.

"Take this potion, dear." Pomfrey handed Goyle what was probably the nastiest tasting potion known to man and gave Hermione all of her focus.

She pulled a mirror up to Hermione's face and said, "Stop me when it's back to the way it was."

Hermione may have let it go a little farther up than that. But, she wasn't feeling guilty about it. If Magic wasn't for improving your lot in life, then what good was it for?

* * *

The next few days were torturous because Rita Skeeter had printed some rumors about Harry being involved with her. Or more accurately started the rumors herself. She would find some way of silencing her as she had no journalistic integrity and just wanted to stir things up. Pansy in particular was outraged that Hermione had been described as 'stunningly pretty'. She mostly ignored her, because Pansy was an annoying harpy and really not worth the time.

Hermione was upset with Krum coming into the Library, not because he tried to bother her while she was reading, but because he always had an entourage of giggling girls. She wondered why he couldn't just disguise himself so that he could get some peace and quiet.

"He's not even good-looking!" Hermione muttered angrily, glaring at his sharp profile that so reminded her of someone else. "They only like him because he's famous! They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that Wonky-Faint thing-"

"Wronski Feint," Harry said through gritted teeth. He must still be upset that he was forced to hang around her instead of being around Ron like he really wanted.

She tried to read about some useful spells that might help him in the tasks ahead, but Krum kept glancing over at them. She was getting a bit fed up with this and so she marched over to Krum, scattering the girls in her path, and spoke clearly, "Whatever it is you want to say to me, please do so. I tire of these air-headed imbeciles you have following you around."

Viktor looked struck dumb at her behaviour. "I vish to speak vith you about something."

She sighed, "I kind of got that from your stares and following me into the Library, whenever I come in here."

"Are the papers right? Are you seeing that boy, Harry Potter?" Krum asked very seriously.

Hermione burst out laughing, causing most of the girls staring at Krum to give her the evil eye. "No, that's all hogwash. He's just a friend."

"Oh." Krum said lamely, "Vell, in that case… Is it alright if I ask you out?"

Hermione looked at Krum incredulously, "This isn't just because I'm not falling all over myself to talk to you, is it?"

Victor laughed, "No, no, I really like you. You seem very smart, vell-read. You have lovely eyes. They are bright vith knowledge."

When he put it that way. "There is a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. If you would like to go with me, I would like to have the chance to get to know you better."

He smiled widely, causing the girls to both sigh and stare at Hermione with contempt. She still didn't really get it, but she found Krum to be amenable company on the few occasions she had talked to him, so she would give it a shot.

She sat back down with Harry as Krum and the girls left the Library en masse.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I'm going on a date next Hogsmeade weekend. With the Wonky-Faint guy." Hermione deliberately messed up the name of the maneuver.

"You?" Harry spoke strangely high pitched, "You are going on a date with Viktor Krum?"

She shrugged, "He just asked me if I would like to go on a date sometime and I set up the particulars. So, yes, that is what I am doing."

Harry looked stunned. "Hermione. You've never shown any interest in dating before now. Literally, zero interest. I didn't think you even liked Krum."

She smiled softly and spoke, "He reminds me of someone I really respect. Although, I think he walks like he has a beach ball between his legs."

"And just who is going to go with me to Hogsmeade, then?" Harry spoke a bit petulantly.

She sighed and turned the page in the latest book, "I don't know, Harry, maybe your best friend Ron. Or maybe you can meet Sirius there, you know how much he likes seeing Rosmerta."

Harry smacked his forehead, "Oh yeah, I forgot I can just ask Sirius to come and see me. Never mind, have fun on your date, Hermione. I'll have to see if Remus wants to see me too."

Harry ran off to the Owlery to send his Godfathers invitations to the next Hogsmeade weekend, leaving Hermione to prepare for his impending doom. She didn't mind it so much because she knew her strength was in researching.

* * *

She decided to forgo the usual date place, because the sheer amount of Pink made her a little bit sick to be perfectly honest. She had Viktor meet her in the clearing beside the Shrieking Shack. She sat waiting for him on a rather large boulder, she was wrapped up tightly in her best sweater and scarf. She was also wearing her dragonhide boots and had her pants tucked into them to keep the ice out.

She watched him waddle across to her in the snow. He really was meant to be in the air, he looked unnatural on land. She stood up and waved to him. He waved back, he had managed to get away from his followers. She opened the door to the Shrieking Shack and let him through. The wards on the Shack were easy to break once you knew how. She put up her own wards immediately once they were both inside.

Viktor had secured the provisions so he pulled from his coat a shrunken picnic basket. She cleared the Shack of dust with a quick flick of her wand. It was still as dilapidated as ever, but at least the floor was clean of dirt and grime. He spread out a fur rug instead of the usual checkered picnic blanket. She lit a fire in the grate with wood she had collected earlier. Most people would just think the ghosts were lighting fires, dim as most people were.

"Isn't this just so much better than some crowded place where photographs are constantly being snapped of you?" Hermione said as she sat down gently onto the rug.

He smiled at her, "You vere right, Her-my-own-knee. I brought butterbeer and some snacks."

She let him set up the refreshments and began talking about something they could both talk about. "Are you worried about the first task? I haven't been able to find anything out about it from my usual sources."

He shrugged and took a sip of butterbeer, "Not really. I know that vatever it is, I can do something vith vat I haff learned at Durmstrang. Are you vorried for your friend, Harry Potter?"

She smiled sadly, "Yes, I am. He's too young, I think, and someone put his name in the Goblet, I am sure of it. Someone wants him to get hurt or killed."

"If you are sure of it, Her-my-own-knee, I am too." Krum gave her his support. She was thankful for it, although she suspected it wasn't enough that one other person believed Harry didn't put his name in.

She smirked and looked over at him nibbling on some crackers and cheese. "Were you ever going to ask me out if I hadn't barged over there?"

He laughed heartily at himself, "Maybe, maybe not. I'm not at all very confident, you see."

She tilted her head to get a better look at him, hiding his face behind a sheath of his hair. "I'm sure that would be very hard for some to believe. How long have you been famous?"

He finished his cracker and answered slowly, as if thinking back to a past time in his life. "A few years now. Before then, I vas nobody. Just a regular student from Durmstrang. Aftervards… Everyone seemed to know me… All of them vanting to spend time vith me. All I had ever vanted vas to fly."

"It's strange how sometimes the things we love become the things that hurt us the most." Hermione spoke, "Or something like that."

Hermione had no idea of what she was saying, not really, but somehow when she said it, it seemed true.

"And vat do you love, Her-my-own-knee?" Viktor said leaning over the picnic basket to get closer to her. She felt an unsettling sensation crawling up her arm.

She leaned away from Viktor's questing eyes. "I'm pretty dull. I love studying new things. Figuring out how something works. Solving mysteries. You know, kid stuff."

He looked from her face down her body, she had never been checked out before. "You aren't as young as your friend, correct?"

"Harry's fourteen. I'm 15 now. Well, almost 16 if you count some extra time I picked up studying." Hermione hadn't really counted it recently but she still had her log of time-turner spent time. She'd have to check that more frequently and add it up. It was kind of disconcerting not knowing your real age.

He smiled slyly, "I thought so."

She wondered for a moment just what Viktor expected of this date. Perhaps the Shrieking Shack was a terrible idea after all. After all, no one would think it weird if they heard you scream.

"Let's go outside for a bit." Hermione spoke while standing up. She put out the fire and headed for the door. "With all the snow, we should make snowmen and have them fight or something silly like that."

Hermione left the shack and was glad to be outside in the fresh air. She was starting to feel claustrophobic in there. She made a ball of snow with her bare hands, and waited behind the boulder for Viktor to come out of the shack. He looked around, confused about her whereabouts no doubt, and she nailed him in the face. And so began a snowball fight that only stopped when both of their fingers were too frozen to continue.

* * *

"So," Harry began the next day, while they were in the Library researching spells he could easily cast at his age and that might prove useful. "How'd your date with Viktor go?"

She knew he was just teasing her but it still rankled her for some reason. "Fine. We had lunch in the Shrieking Shack and then had a snowball fight. Then, I came back to the castle to do some more studying."

He batted his eyelashes at her, "Nothing else happened?"

She laughed out loud at the weird sucker face expression he was making. "No, he walked me back to the castle and went to his ship. The End."

Harry sighed, "Well, I guess, all along, I knew your life couldn't be more interesting than mine. I get to fight dragons for the first task."

Hermione almost did a spit take. Thankfully, she wasn't drinking anything. "You're kidding. Please tell me these are baby dragons like Norbert. You need years and years of training to take on adult dragons. Plus, a team of dragon tamers like Charlie. They can't ask a fourteen year old wizard to do that, can they?"

Harry shrugged, "I guess they can, since no one is going up to Dumbledore and telling him to withdraw me from the tournament."

Wizards must have never heard of child endangerment. Hermione's mind boggled at how such a world wasn't more barbaric in its ways. She would have thought the other Muggleborn witches and wizards in positions of power would have said something about that. Then again, maybe there weren't any muggleborns in positions of power. That would actually explain a lot.

"Well, there has got to be something you can do that will help you get through this first task." Hermione spoke rationally. If there was no way out, the only way to go was straight through.

"I don't think not dying to Voldemort and flying will help me defeat a dragon," said Harry sarcastically.

Hermione shouted, "That's it! Harry you have to fly."

Madam Pince gave her a quelling glare, and she said much more quietly. "You can't bring anything but your wand in with you according to my sources. So that means you can still summon your broom, which you can then use to out fly the dragon...and get whatever you have to from it."

"Hermione, I'm pants at the Summoning Charm." Harry deadpanned.

She smiled and said, "I know. That's all the more incentive for you to practice until you get it right."

"And I thought Snape was an evil teacher." Harry spoke grumpily under his breath. "You would make him look as nonthreatening as a baby owl."

She beamed, taking it as a compliment.

* * *

Hermione spent much of her time helping Harry learn to do the Summoning Charm without difficulty. She was using her abandoned classroom from last year. It was still stocked with items Harry could summon, and was out of the way of the main traffic areas of the school. She was using the max allotted amount of time per day on the time turner every day, which was exactly 6 extra hours. Harry skived off on Divination a few times, she didn't see why he couldn't just drop Divination and pick up something sensible like Arithmancy.

It was the day of the first task and he had finally mastered the summoning charm the night before. Hermione wished him luck, but she wasn't sure he heard her over his panic. She hoped he kept his cool out there and just focused like she had tried to teach him. She made her way with Luna and Ginny, she wasn't speaking with Draco since the incident with her teeth, to the stands to support Harry. Luna had on a crazy roaring lion head, obviously supporting Harry instead of Cedric. Ginny was handing out Gryffindor pendants to all who would take them.

She took two, one for each hand, she spotted Draco further down the stands. He was ensconced with his fellow Slytherins and their Potter Sucks badges. She wasn't going to feel bad that she wasn't with them; Draco couldn't keep doing things like this, he had to know that. Even though Harry had drawn his wand first, Draco had instigated the fight to begin with.

He looked over at her and his grey eyes were cold. Why did it have to be so hard to be his friend and Harry's friend? Why couldn't they get over it already? Was this that fabled chasm between Gryffindor and Slytherin? He looked away and she felt pained by his distance. She knew that she had started the silence between them but… it hurt anyway. She had just been too busy helping Harry to realize that she hadn't attempted to talk with Draco about what he had done. And maybe, he should have been the one to say something. But she had not been around for him to say it.

Cedric Diggory was first with the Swedish Short Snout. She was astonished that Cedric could move and cast his spells so fast. She had never seen him duel, but he was definitely no slouch in that area. Mostly, he just had to trick the dragon into moving away from the egg. After a few narrow shaves, in which the crowd gasped and screamed appropriately, Cedric had the egg.

For Fleur's run Hermione mostly had her eyes glued to the tent, worrying about how Harry was coping with his nerves. She knew hers were basically frayed after witnessing Cedric's close calls, she hoped Harry wouldn't have to get close enough to the beast to have some part of him mauled or eaten.

At the end of Viktor's attempt, which she was ashamed to admit she hadn't watched entirely too closely, she saw him give her a wave and a wink. It was unmistakably aimed at her. She waved back, her face was probably redder than the pendants she held in her hand.

Harry came out next, he looked up in the stands for her and then in shock at the incredibly large dragon. She crossed her fingers to ward off bad luck, not that she believed in it per se but because it felt proactive.

She saw him raise his wand, and yet couldn't hear him shout the words that would summon the firebolt. She looked towards the castle, she knew it would come from one of the windows in Gryffindor tower so she focused on it. She heard it before she saw it, it was hurtling around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in mid air beside Harry. The crowd sounded like a fleet of jet planes, they were screaming so loudly. Bagman was shouting something but she was entirely too focused on Harry to listen.

She watched him mount and take flight and she felt some of the pressure lift from her chest. She truly felt he would be all right if he could just fly.

Harry rose very high into the air and then dropped down fast, close to the dragon's head. She felt her heart stop for just a moment before he pulled up again, the dragon's fire landing where he would have been moments before. He did Krum's move from the World Cup. Bagman was praising Harry's flying to all in the audience who were still listening to him.

Harry got the great beast off of her clutch and flying after him, after several more minutes of careful flying and dodging. It appeared to Hermione that Harry was charming her like you would a snake. And then he swooped under her, and he had it. He had the Golden Egg. He had done it in even less time than any of the other competitors. She was incredibly proud of him in that moment.

She rushed down the stands, hurrying to get to the tent that she saw Harry enter after the end of the task. She made it at about the same time as Ron. He had gotten a little ahead of her. She noticed Ron was just staring at Harry. Ron was white as a sheet, and was looking at Harry like he hadn't made it through the task and he was looking at Harry's spirit.

She wrapped Harry in a hug since it looked like Ron was stuck in a loop. "You were brilliant, Harry."

He nodded into her shoulder and she knew he was still focused on Ron. "You were amazing! You really were!"

She backed up to give him some air, and Ron a chance to say something.

"Harry," Ron began very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet- I- I reckon they're trying to do you in!"

Hermione felt awkward standing beside them in that moment. It was like all their years and years of friendship had never happened. And perhaps Ron had irrevocably damaged that trust between them. It was up to Harry now to try to forgive.

"Caught on, have you?" Harry spoke coldly. "Took you long enough."

The pressure in the tent rose higher. She kept looking between the two, hoping she would not have to interfere in another fight. Something small shifted in Harry's eyes.

"It's okay," Harry said, before Ron could apologize for what he had and hadn't said these last few weeks. "Forget it."

"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've- "

"_Forget it,_" Harry spoke with finality.

And then the two of them started grinning at each other. That was it, they had made up, just like that. Tears came pouring out of her eyes. She was so glad.

Of course, Harry was looking at her like she had grown another head. "There's nothing to cry about!"

"You two are so _stupid!_" Tears splashed down onto her scarf. She turned and left before they could hear her howling with laughter. Boys were just so bloody thick sometimes.

* * *

Of course Hermione didn't think much of the theory proposed by Sirius that Karkaroff was behind it all, not that she could tell Harry outright why Sirius was dead wrong. But she did allude to the fact that Sirius was likely jealous that a guilty man could go free if he named names, the way the criminal justice system was supposed to work, while an innocent man was left to rot. She clued Harry into the fact that not all of the things Sirius said were without bias, that in fact most of them were very biased according to Sirius' unique experiences.

"If not the former Death Eater turned professor then who, Hermione?" Harry asked.

She faked thinking about it for a few moments. "Maybe it is someone in disguise, somewhat like Pettigrew last year. Have you checked your map?"

Harry shrugged, "No, I haven't. Should I?"

"It couldn't hurt, make sure to look for all the current teachers, there is an awful lot of evil wizards popping out from various Hogwarts positions. If any of them don't show up on the map consistently then you have your answer. Only true names show up on the map." Hermione spoke clearly, "And we should also look into this egg before we are rushing around trying to prepare for the second task with only a week to do so."

The boys groaned, it was like pulling teeth with those two. It wasn't as if Ron had even helped last time, he really should do more to help his so called best friend. "I get that you are tired from all the angst you've had about each other, but we really need to make sure you get through this, Harry. Also, Ron… you did nothing but pout for the last few months, it's about time you pitched in."

"Okay, okay," Ron shouted in the Great Hall, "You really are such a ball-buster, Hermione."

She sighed and left them to their dessert, it was time for her to brew Veritaserum with Professor Snape. At last, something enjoyable instead of nerve wracking or painfully dull.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**The Royal Ball**

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**This is the place where a disclaimer would go if you didn't already know what one looks like. Since no one actually reads these things, I have one thing to say to you all: Dragon Nipples. That is all.**

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**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in the beta'ing. Oh, and you should all thank StrangerEmotion for being such a caring author, because she posts the chapter at the same time I receive it, so you won't have to wait any longer than necessary to read it. =^_^=**

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Professor Snape was waiting for her in his laboratory, he had already set out the ingredients and tools needed for the brew. She closed the door behind her and warded the room. She made sure to only ward with spells that wouldn't affect the potion brewing process. She walked up to the large table that they had spent many a night laboring over Professor Lupin's Wolfsbane, and waited for him to speak.

"We have already gone over the procedure for brewing Veritaserum. You know that much like Wolfsbane, it requires the full lunar cycle to mature. There are several potions for which that is the case. I won't go into detail but the reason for that should be clear, depending on the potion in question. The brew will require complete concentration. You may now begin." He spoke and then stepped out of the way.

It was a test then. If she failed to produce Veritaserum, she would be less worthy of future tutoring in advanced Potions making. In that case she only had one choice, to do well.

As she worked, she concentrated only on the potion, eventually she stopped noticing Professor Snape was still in the room with her. By the end of the two hour brew, the active portion of it anyway, she was dog tired and just slumped down into the stool behind her.

Professor Snape gave her potion a quick look over her shoulder, which surprised her since she forgot he was there, and her head hit his chin particularly hard. She turned around immediately to apologize. He was rubbing his chin with a constrained expression of pain on his face. "I'm sorry, I got so involved I forgot you were still in the room with me. I've just been a bit jumpy lately; Moody-Crouch keeps ambushing us in the halls with his Constant Vigilance rant."

He pulled from his robes a tin of something. "Has he done anything else out of the ordinary that you have seen?" Professor Snape asked as he rubbed some of the stuff in the tin under his chin. She noticed the fineness of his jaw and neck region, it was probably one of his better features.

"Hmm? Oh. No, he's been normal for a DADA teacher since the Goblet incident. I mean, he still acts like a raving lunatic but that could just be his portrayal of Moody." Hermione spoke as Professor Snape came up to her with the tin.

"It's bruise cream. Let me see where my chin hit you." He put his hands on her head and through her hair, looking for any redness on her scalp. The cream was cold on her skin but she quite liked how it felt being massaged in. She may have even made some noises of pleasure.

After a minute or two, which probably wasn't strictly necessary but she wasn't going to complain, he ceased massaging her scalp and put the tin back into some pocket in his robes. "How did I do for my first try?"

He looked a little confused for a moment before he spoke, "The Veritaserum will be adequate for teaching you to resist its effects."

She smiled widely, and his eyes were drawn to her mouth. "Did you do something to your mouth, Miss Granger? Ah, your teeth aren't as prominent as they were before Draco's curse."

She kept smiling and asked, "Do you like it?"

He shrugged. "It makes no difference to me. You did not look terrible the way you were before. You look just fine now. It's a net loss of zero."

She took that to be a somewhat nice thing to say. "My parents will probably not see it that way. They would have wanted me to deal with it the muggle way."

"When I said… What I said in the hall to you-" Professor Snape, her friend, began to say before she stopped him.

"It's okay. I was just faking the tears. If I fooled even you, then it must have worked amazingly on the rest of the people gathered there." Hermione was smiling, slightly smug.

He looked completely amazed that she had forgiven him for what he had said, let alone that she hadn't taken it personally to begin with. "In any case, I spoke those words in particular for a reason. To me… you could have been covered in boils and I would have seen you, the real you, underneath them. It's not about your looks… I thought you should know that."

She felt her face heat up. She didn't really know what to say to that. "Thank you," She mumbled strangely. "I… I feel the same."

He looked down at their matching boots, smiling secretly beneath his curtain of hair. She could see that her words had pleased him. "You don't have to worry. I understand the position you are in. Even given my new social status, you must not be seen giving me any favors. Not even something as simple as treating me like your Slytherins."

She reached out to his Mark-less arm. She held his hand. "Do you know why you are drawn to me, Hermione? Remember the way our magic touched... I've been researching possible reasons for that reaction. I believe there is some part of the ritual performed years ago on our ancestors which was never fulfilled. I believe it has colored our every interaction since we have met. If that makes you weary of continuing our friendship, I completely understand."

She thought that he was barmy if he thought she would want to back away now. "I don't care if it has. You have been exceptionally careful not to cross any lines with me, and that speaks more to me than any diluted ritual. So what if you and I have been helped along by some magic that courses through us? It's not the magic that makes me excited to see you again. You are invaluable to me."

He looked up, and her heart broke at how vulnerable he looked. How could a man of his talents and skills still have such a rudimentary understanding of his own worth? "Why? What makes me valuable to you?"

"You challenge me to move beyond my preconceived limits. I have never met anyone quite like you. When I see you take on the future with all your being, I am inspired to do the same. You are so brave, the truest kind of brave that exists. And yet you also cause me to think, really think, and I think that most of all is what has drawn me to you." Hermione stepped forward, closing the distance between them. "You won't do anything, even if I stand so close to you I can feel the heat of your body next to mine. No one could be more valuable to me than you."

He looked more pained than he did after she had head-butted him in the chin. And yet, he started to cry silently as a cautious smile spread across his pale face. "I'm quite sure I didn't deserve such fair praise. Though I am very glad to hear it. Especially when I know you meant it."

"You don't need Legilimency to read my mind. That also helps." Hermione rose her hands to his face to stroke away the tears. He simply looked down at her face, which she was sure was smiling idiotically, and he sighed with some restrained want. "Can I be completely honest? I'm not sure I'll be able to make it until I'm of age to kiss you. This is quite a lot harder than I thought it might be at first."

He nodded in understanding as her hands dropped to his shoulders. It was like they were dancing without any movement. "I won't hold you at fault if you find someone else. Someone more age appropriate. I'd hate to cause you to miss out on what it means to grow up..."

She felt there was something he wasn't saying. "Did you? Have you ever- um, kissed anyone?"

He blushed, she thought it was strange to see him look as bashful as a young boy. "I swear you to secrecy about this but I haven't... There has never been anyone for me that wanted to kiss me back. The closest was a few quick pecks on the cheek."

That actually explained a lot. "I have gained about 4 and a half months now with the time turner. By the end of this year I will be 16. By midterm next year I will be 17. If I continue using the time turner as much as I do."

"I will still be bound to wait until after you have left school." Severus spoke softly. "It is fine, Hermione. You have my permission, although you don't need it, to find someone who can kiss you back."

She growled in frustration and placed her head on his chest. "I won't. There is no one else."

He tentatively placed his arms around her waist. "You will. Someone as brilliant and caring as you won't go unappreciated for long."

"Not the point." She pouted, inhaling his scent while she could.

"I know, I know." He said while rubbing circles on her back. "We will speak again in a month, unless something else comes up. I think it's best we cut down somewhat on how often we meet."

She stepped back reluctantly, not very eager to go back to her empty dorm.

His hand slid weakly against her skin and fell awkwardly back to his side. She tried to meet his eyes but he was looking resolutely at the floor. "So, that's the way of things. Well, I think I kind of hate school. I never thought I'd say that."

He laughed tiredly. "Try teaching for thirteen years. Then come talk to me."

She snickered. "Thirteen years, huh?"

He shuddered, "If only I were teaching defense against the dark arts, a subject where the blasted imbeciles would be less likely to blow themselves up."

She examined him in detail, he wasn't winning any Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Awards. He was very obviously over twice her age. Time had not been kind to him, nor had genetics. Most people would agree that he was the least attractive person at Hogwarts, and that was including Filch. But all of that seemed to not matter to her. He had something no other wizard could claim. "My heart."

She left him standing in the potions laboratory as she took the Floo in his office to her dorm. She wondered how she would keep from going mad for the next few years. Maybe he was right to tell her to find someone else, but she wasn't ready to admit that just yet.

* * *

All the Golden Egg did was shriek. It was driving Hermione mad to hear it over and over again, as Harry bemoaned his inability to figure out what the shrieking meant. They were both mad, really, she for letting him continue to do it and him for being the one to do so. After another ten seconds of horrible shrieking, she snapped. "Harry, please stop doing that! I'm this close to hexing you in ways you can't even imagine."

Harry looked over at her confused at her reaction. "Well, how else am I supposed to figure out this bloody egg?"

She slapped her forehead. "Maybe you could try doing other things besides opening it without changing any other variables. Have you tried opening it in other substances, like water, for example? Some sound waves, those at a higher frequency like that shrieking, travel farther underwater than lower frequency sounds. It might have just the right amount of propagation loss to be understood underwater. Actually, underwater acoustics are really interesting, I could lend you a book on it… if you wanted."

Harry just blinked. "You are scary brilliant, Hermione, but sometimes I don't understand a word that comes out of your mouth."

"Give it a bath, Harry. Take your map to make sure you don't run into any Professors. And your cloak, of course. Put your head underwater with the Egg and then open it." Hermione told him explicitly what to do because she couldn't take the shrieking anymore, and it wasn't like he asked to get sucked into this Triwizard Tournament nonsense. So what if it was against the rules to get help with figuring out the tasks. It should have been against the rules for him to even participate. She wasn't feeling particularly happy with the rules at the moment anyway.

"Oh, you could have just said so!" Harry laughed. "Unfortunately, the boy's bathrooms only have showers."

She thought of a solution to that immediately. "According to _Hogwarts: A History_ there are pool sized baths in the prefects' bathrooms. Those should also be on the map. Just talk to the map and say: Find nearest prefect bathroom."

Harry looked a bit confused that she knew so much more about the map than he when she had never used it. "How do you know all this stuff?"

"Reading, and my sources, of course." She smiled widely, enjoying the look of bewilderment on Harry's face.

"One of these days, Hermione, you are going to have to tell me about these sources of yours." Harry spoke very seriously. He got up from the spot on the floor of the abandoned classroom they were often using to meet away from people, the rumors about them hadn't abated. She would have to take a stand against this Skeeter woman, and fast.

"Before you leave, Harry… I wanted to tell you something." Hermione spoke idly, turning another page in her book. "I saw Dobby. He's working here with Winky. I went down to the kitchens, I asked Fred and George where they were, to see how Hogwarts' elves were being treated. Check to make sure they were happy working here. I mean, it's one thing to know that most elves are happier just working for a family all of their life, it's quite another to assume all are… Anyway, Dobby was there and so was Winky. She hasn't taken being dismissed by Mr. Crouch very well. I think he would like to see you especially, but is too afraid to speak to you again. Take Ron with you, he'd like that and it's safer with both of you together. Not much, but it's something."

Harry agreed quickly to that, he was so happy now that he had Ron back as a friend. She was frankly glad that she didn't have to be his only friend anymore. Those were a rough few weeks for her.

"You know. I need a partner for the Yule Ball that's coming up." Harry spoke idly.

She looked up from her book to see him looking very bashfully at the floor. "I'm going with Viktor. What is it, Harry? Can you not think of anyone you want to ask?"

He blushed and mumbled, "No, I can think of someone but… that is… I don't know how to ask her."

Hermione put down the book, this kind of conversation would require her full concentration. "Have you tried just saying: Would you care to go as my dance partner for the Yule Ball? Or: Will you go with me to the Yule Ball? It's not too hard I should think."

"Easy for you to say, you didn't have to do the asking." Harry looked upset.

"That is true. But I would have if I liked someone as much as you seem to… Listen, it's okay if you don't get a yes. It's not the end of the world. If you can face a dragon, you can face most girls." She decided to take some pity on him, "If it's Ginny… She will definitely say yes. You could also try Luna, if your other options don't pan out. Just give it a shot. Get out there and ask someone."

"Why'd you say to try Luna? Does she like me?" Harry looked stunned that Luna might like him.

Hermione shrugged, "I don't know, maybe, Harry… I mean, she did make that awesome lion head costume to support you during the first task. She hasn't talked at all about you to me however, so it's really a toss up. Do you like her?"

He blushed brightly. "I don't know. She's kind of strange, isn't she?"

"One of her best features in my opinion." Hermione smirked at how uncomfortable Harry was becoming.

He laughed, "I guess that's true. She talks to the front of the carriages, you know."

"Oh, that's the thestrals. You can't see them because you haven't seen death with your own eyes. I guess you must not have seen your mum die… or you were too young for that to count." Hermione took out a book from her bag on magical horses. "Page 237 covers them."

"How do you fit so much stuff in one bag?" Harry asked once he realized how many books she had pulled out of the one small bag.

"Magical extension charm. It's like what was on the tents at the World Cup. Of course, since magical beings don't have to go in my bag, it can fit much more inside of it." She wasn't about to explain the theory of that to Harry. "I also have a trunk with a similar charm on it, I could fit inside of it if I wanted to… That's it!"

She rushed out of the room and to the dungeons. She left the books with a very perplexed Harry. She ran all the way down to the dungeons.

He was in the office with another student, it was Draco. She hadn't talked to him in a couple of months now.

"Come on in, Miss Granger." Professor Snape spoke, indicating the seat next to Draco's.

She sat down, uncertain. Especially when he erected their usual wards. "I've just been speaking with Mr. Malfoy about something that much pertains to you. He wants to speak with you, to _apologize_." Professor Snape drawled that last part.

She looked at Draco, and noticed he was fiddling with his tie like he did when extremely uncomfortable. "I- I shouldn't have let it go that far. You shouldn't have gotten hurt because of me. I'm sorry for what my actions must have done to you."

Hermione sighed, "I understand you wish to mend fences, but I need to know that you won't keep starting fights like this. It's unbecoming of you and reflects poorly on me in return. I need you to be above pettiness as my right hand man, Draco. I'm only as effective as the friends I keep, you understand? And I need Harry Potter as a friend. Much as it probably rankles you to hear me say this… now that I have started my campaign, I need to be seen with people like Harry Potter. It's a step for me in my plan to become a beloved Queen."

He looked slightly squeamish as he asked, "So, you aren't dating Harry Potter?"

She laughed, "Don't believe everything you read, Draco. You saw how easy it was to pay off the journalists to get them to print what we wanted. And this one seems like a right piece of work, besides. Currently she is printing fairly nice things about me, even if they are all lies, who knows what she may print next."

"So, if I try to taunt Potter less you will forgive me?" Draco asked hopefully.

She looked at him humorlessly, "No, Draco. You need to do more than try. I'd really like to get you two together and just talk these things through, no sass from either of you. But I'm not sure how much time we will have for that with all that's going on right now. Anyway, who are you going with for the Yule Ball? Pansy?"

He shuddered, "Spare the thought, I thought I'd take Daphne."

Hermione smiled, "You two would make a handsome couple."

"If you two are quite finished," spoke Professor Snape menacingly, "I'd like my office back."

"One more thing, Professor. I did have another reason for coming down here to talk to you." Hermione said calmly as Professor Snape shooed Draco out of the room.

They waited a minute, until they were sure Draco had left.

"Moody, I know where he is," Hermione spoke excitedly. "I know you can't act on it but he is inside Crouch's trunk. He probably has one with an extension charm on it like mine. There is room enough in there to keep a prisoner indefinitely. Kind of frightening when you think about it. That's where he's keeping Moody so he can easily pluck hairs from him for the Polyjuice Potion."

Professor Snape seemed to deflate. "It's one thing when you don't know where someone is… But when you do… It's torture to let them suffer as we must do now. I can't think of any clever solution that will let me return to my spying gig and save Moody from the clutches of Crouch Jr. This is definitely the very essence of a rock and a hard place. My only solace is that he must be kept alive for Barty's plan, so I shouldn't have Moody's death on my hands."

* * *

The night of the Ball was upon her. She had gotten the help of her books to figure out how to do something about her appearance and, many charms and potions later, she had sleek brown waves in a half up half down hairstyle. Her makeup was tastefully applied. And she fit snugly into a royal blue dress which shimmered quite nicely. And, looking down, she noticed that she did fill out the dress rather well. She was almost surprised by her own attractiveness. Viktor was leading her into the Great Hall on his arm and she noticed many eyes were upon her, many of them not even recognizing her. She felt very feminine.

She wore grey flats with a silver toe on top of black color block stockings, whose top half turned into small hearts. Silver nail polish, and, on her cleavage, a silver necklace of two hearts intertwined. She wondered if anyone would understand what that meant. Very doubtful since most people would assume it meant she was in love with Harry or Viktor.

She had a silver shawl with black trim and blue swallows draped through her arms. To a reader of symbolism, it was obvious what she was saying just with how she was dressed.

She scanned the Hall and saw him almost immediately. Her heart skipped a beat at seeing him in the robes he had worn for the dinner at the Malfoys. She could only look for a moment before she noticed Harry and his date approach from her peripheral vision. He had chosen to take Luna after all. She wondered if Luna was his first or second choice. Probably second knowing Harry. Luna looked rather like a silver rocket that had decided to be a flapper. She had on her fanciest of vegetable earrings. Hermione smiled happily at seeing them.

"Hi, Harry!" she spoke brightly. "Hi, Luna!"

Luna smiled dreamily and said, "You look rather different, Hermione. I quite like it, although you look just as pretty with your hair stuffed with quills and your nose in a book."

It seemed Luna was the only one who was treating her transformation as just mildly appealing. The Krum Fanclub members were burning with jealousy. Draco was staring at her instead of his date, Daphne. Blaise looked at her a little calculatingly before he turned back to a scowling Pansy. Hermione wondered just when Pansy would give it up already. It's not like Hermione was really trying to hurt Pansy's chances with the boys she liked.

Ron walked right past her without looking at her. It was obviously not because he hadn't seen her, but because he hadn't wanted to see her.

Before the dance was the feast. She walked politely through the crowd, exchanging pleasantries, until she was sitting next to Viktor at the champions' table. She barely paid attention to the food because of the fascinating discussion she was having with Viktor about his own school. Of course, Karkaroff interjected before she could hear much about the place he went to school. He seemed very paranoid, that one… she supposed being an ex-death eater who had ratted out his fellow death eaters would do that to you.

She ignored Karkaroff and asked Viktor about his favourite classes. He loved Transfiguration and Flying most.

"I love Arithmancy and Potions the most. But all of my classes are certainly interesting and challenging." She spoke as they finished up with their meal.

Now the dancing had begun. Surprisingly, he wasn't a bad dancer. Maybe he just walked strangely. She danced several times with him and had quite the laugh watching other couples on the floor and their "dancing". Harry and Luna were sitting at the table with a glowering Ron. What was up with him?

She left Viktor to get the punch and she went over to them. She sat down next to Luna who was wearing really strange glasses and picking at dust mites around Ron's head. Harry was absorbed in a staring contest with a nonparticipating Cho and Cedric. So, Harry had wanted to go with Cho but had taken Luna instead because Cho had turned him down for Cedric. Tough break.

"Hi," Harry said to her as she sat down. Ron didn't say anything.

"It's hot, isn't it?" Hermione spoke as she was fanning herself with her hand. She felt both tired and exhilarated from the dancing. "Viktor's just gone to get some drinks."

Ron looked at her with a witheringly. "_Viktor?_" He nearly shouted. "Hasn't he asked you to call him _Vicky_ yet?"

Hermione had no idea why Ron was suddenly acting like this, so she could only stare at him in surprise for a few moments. "What's up with you?"

"If you don't know," said Ron scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you."

She couldn't believe it. Was Ron jealous? But, she had never even heard him say anything to her of the sort, nor had she said anything to him. She looked to Harry who basically just shrugged it off.

"Ron, what - ?"

"He's from Durmstrang!" Spat Ron. "He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! You - you're -" Ron flailed his arms as if trying to steal the words from the air around him. "_fraternizing with the enemy,_ that's what you're doing!"

And so, not being able to help herself anymore, Hermione burst out laughing in Ron's face. "Harry knows that no matter who I dance with or talk to that I support him in this tournament. Now, what is this really about?"

Ron looked gobsmacked that he hadn't managed to get her off track with his thinly veiled jealousy.

"Don't bother answering, Ronald Weasley. It's obvious, isn't it? You are upset with me for going with Viktor because you wanted to go with me but couldn't figure out how to ask me. You could have known, Ron, that I had been asked by Viktor almost as soon as we knew about the Yule Ball. But you were too busy pretending not to care. Well, it's too late now to notice that I am a girl."

"That - that's not it." He spoke weakly. "He's evil."

Hermione just rolled her eyes and shared a conspiratorial smile with Harry and Luna.

"Yeah, mate." Harry spoke. "It is. You've had a crush on her for forever now. Didn't you notice?"

Ron shook his head quickly, as if trying to shake Harry's words out of his head.

"It's as obvious as the nargles around your head." Luna added, to Harry and Hermione's amusement.

Soon, Viktor was back with the drinks and the table became incredibly awkward to sit at until Ron stormed off.

"Thank you," Hermione said gratefully as she took a sip of the punch, "These two are friends of mine. You know Harry, of course, and this is Luna Lovegood."

With delight she noticed Percy scolding Ron for being rude to Viktor. Serves him right to have to listen to that windbag, the great prat.

After the drinks she decided she would walk the grounds. Harry and Luna quickly agreed. As soon as they got into the rose garden they split up to find separate benches to sit on and watch the night sky. She hadn't gone very far into the winding paths before she heard her Professor speaking lowly with someone.

"...don't see what there is to fuss about, Igor."

"Severus, you can't pretend this isn't happening!" Karkaroff hissed out in an attempt to not be overheard. Obviously, Severus didn't put a Muffliato charm up for this conversation. He wanted it to be heard then. "It's been getting clearer and clearer for months. I am becoming seriously concerned. I can't deny it -"

"Then flee," Professor Snape spoke curtly. "Flee - I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts."

When he came around the corner he hadn't yet seen her, and was blasting apart rose bushes that had been hiding couples. He took points from a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and then he saw Hermione and Viktor standing on the path. Karkaroff looked displeased to see her with Viktor. But it was nothing compared to the look Professor Snape was giving her. He had figured out her clues. Blue, for loyalty. The silver and black were referring to him in a tongue in cheek way. The swallows were a bird that mated for life, so that one was clear in meaning. The hearts were for her last confession to him, that he had her heart.

"And what are you two doing?"

Hermione smiled courteously. "Having a stroll in the gardens to clear our heads, Professor. It's nice to see you again, Professor Karkaroff."

"Keep strolling, then!" Professor Snape positively snarled, as he brushed past her; he left a note in her hand, she placed it in her extending bag. Karkaroff hurried after him. Hermione and Viktor continued down the path.

"I vonder vat Professor Karkaroff is vorried about." Viktor spoke as they walked.

"Probably the Dark Lord coming back. It's no secret that Karkaroff was a Death Eater. They have marks on their forearm that faded when the Dark Lord was 'killed' by a baby Harry. So it would follow that if the Mark was getting darker, then the Dark Lord would be rising again. He's probably worried he'll be targeted by the Dark Lord or his followers for betraying them. Which sucks for him, but he kind of made his own bed… know what I mean?"

Viktor shrugged. "Maybe. Is it like taking responsibility for your own actions?"

"Basically." She said as she sat down in a bench where she could see the moon shining off the lake. Viktor sat down close to her. Very close, he put his arm around her.

"Her-my-own- knee…" He said longingly.

She stared up at the stars and wished she was back on a different bench under the stars. Or maybe on the bench in the future with someone else.

"Viktor… I know this probably seems unfair to you but I have my heart set on someone else. I had hoped that maybe you could be… Well, it doesn't really matter what I thought because it was plainly wrong." She hated seeing that look on his face. It was never pleasant, having this kind of conversation.

"There is no hope that you might come to like me?" Viktor had taken his arm off her and was holding her hands now.

She sighed gustily, "I'm sorry, but I don't think it's likely."

Viktor nodded in understanding. "Oh, okay. Vell, it vas nice getting to know you, Her-my-own-knee. At the very least, you had fun tonight, right?"

"Yes, Viktor... up until this heart crushing moment it was lovely. You were a wonderful dance partner." She smiled tearily.

"In that case, I will go back to the dance floor." Viktor spoke sadly.

Hermione waved him off and turned back to look at the stars. She found them imminently soothing. A thousand little pricks of light that were larger still, most likely, than their own sun. And they probably had planets around them as well. Would there be a planet out there with aliens that were also wizards, or was that only a earth thing? She giggled at the thought of alien wizards. Could magic get them into space some day, or was that only an area of science? Could they fly through space like they did on earth? Could a wizard apparate to the moon? Maybe she would live to see that with her extended life span as a witch. She would add that to her list of things to research when she survived this war. Wizard space travel.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**The Royal Jester**

* * *

**Read the first chapter for the disclaimer. My hands are too tired to make a witty one right now... if they ever made one that was witty to begin with.**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5 (who wanted to tell you all):**

**Hello everyone! I've just found out about the Profile Stats (never bothered to look before), and I want to thank all of you that looked at my little profile. So I want to thank all of you from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. ^.^**

* * *

The very next day, Boxing Day to be precise, Harry had big news to share with her regarding something he and Luna had overheard while walking in the Gardens. Apparently, he was shocked to find out that Hagrid was possessed of a Giantess mother and a Wizard father. Luna was behind him, corroborating his story before she found something more interesting to do in the Library; which was just about anything else.

"Well, I thought he must be," Hermione shrugged while saying, "I knew he couldn't be pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible… It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves… It's just bigotry, isn't it?"

Harry shrugged, "That's more or less what I told Ron. But he's of the opinion that having a Giantess for a mother will make everyone think you are a serial killer waiting to happen."

Hermione didn't look up as she turned the page on her book. "How is old Ronald, anyway? Still stewing about what I said to him at the Yule Ball?"

Harry laughed, "Probably, but he's pretending like none of it happened."

She waited until Luna had walked off with her head in the clouds. "So, how was the rest of the night?"

Harry blushed and fiddled with his quill. "Well, a gentleman never tells, does he?"

She smirked, "You didn't?"

He blushed even more. "I did. Or rather… she did."

Hermione thought he was being just adorable about this. "Well?"

Harry smiled widely as he rubbed the back of his neck near the hair at his nape. "I froze under the pressure. But, it was nice. She's rather nicer than anyone gives her credit for… and not at all as weird as everyone claims."

"Did you say anything after?" Hermione asked curiously.

Harry turned redder still, "I said: thanks." He hung his head in embarrassment. "But she just smiled and said: You're welcome."

Hermione restrained herself from making the kind of noises only previously heard out of the Egg. "That's wonderful, Harry."

He smiled sheepishly, "You think so, Hermione? I think I might ask her out next Hogsmeade weekend. Maybe do something for Valentine's Day. Girls like that sort of thing, right?"

Hermione chortled, "Yes, Harry. We like chocolates and going on dates. What do you think Luna would like to do?"

"Probably going hunting for Crumple-horned Snorkacks," Harry smiled softly, "I'll ask her if she wants to go out with me more."

Hermione shooed him off to find Luna while she continued to study. She was trying not to think of what would happen later today. The Veritaserum finished brewing last night. So, she would be taking a small dose every night for the next few months until she could lie to Professor Snape's face. She wondered what kind of questions he would ask her… would they be embarrassing?

* * *

They met up in her dorm, mostly due to the fact that it was much more secure than his office. He had made sure of that. He placed a cup of tea before her. She knew he had already dosed the tea before he had set it down on the coffee table. She picked the cup up and drank it slowly, just watching him watching her. He had a parchment of questions in his hand.

She finished it very slowly, not wanting to start until she had bolstered her courage. As soon as she heard the clink of the cup being sat down on the table, he launched into his questions.

"What is your name?" He spoke with a tone of boredom.

"Hermione Jean Granger." She answered automatically.

"What is your age as of today, December 26th 1994?"

"Fifteen years three months and seven days by the calendar but I have gained nine months and two weeks and three days by time turner. So, that makes me sixteen years old and three weeks and three days, biologically and chronologically."

"How often do you use the time turner when it's not strictly necessary?" Professor Snape spoke, not using the questions on his parchment.

She tried to lie and say that she didn't use it all that often, but she couldn't. "All the time."

He smirked, "Why do you use the time turner when you aren't using it for class?"

"To help Harry with his tasks. To sleep, sometimes. To study more." Hermione rattled off.

He leaned back, examining his other questions. "Who do you trust the least of those that you know?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore."

"Why is that?"

"He plays with lives."

"And who do you trust the most?"

"You." She said smiling happily.

"Why is that?"

"I know you always try to do and be your best. No matter the circumstances, you don't give up on your reason for living. You vowed to turn a new leaf after you realized your mistakes and do so at great peril to yourself. You are my role model and my friend. I know you would save me, if you could. You would do whatever you could. And if you couldn't, it would haunt you forever-" Hermione would have kept on talking but he silenced her.

"That's enough on that question. Now, do try to lie to me, Hermione, or this is going to take forever. Imagine I am someone you really don't like or trust. Then answer that person."

She nodded complacently, "All right. I will try."

She fought to imagine him as the Headmaster, someone who she still wasn't comfortable speaking to for very long. She knew he was ultimately good, but that didn't mean she wanted to tell him everything.

"What is your greatest secret? The secret you would not wish to tell anyone… tell me." Professor Snape spoke dangerously.

She shuddered, trying to grasp onto anything in her mind that she could use instead of that. All she could hear was her own voice saying no, over and over again. She didn't want to tell. She couldn't tell him that. She remembered something else that would work. "I turned my neighbors' cat pink when I was very young. That's why I don't like pink. I was grounded for so long because they thought I had dyed its hair."

He smiled. "Very good deflection, Miss Granger. I could tell you were lying, however, so you could use more work with that. Practice lying to yourself in the mirror while you are taking Veritaserum. Now that we broke through with this first lesson, you will be able to do the rest of the work yourself."

Hermione was sad to see him go after that, but she knew that it would be easier on them this way. She took out her books and immersed herself in reading for the rest of the night.

* * *

Hermione was in her usual spot in the Library, when who should enter but Draco Malfoy. He was alone, mercifully, and came up to her sheepishly. He stood next to her table, holding some Arithmancy books in his arms, and asked to sit. She let him, and they worked in silence for a few minutes, before that silence was broken by Draco.

"I'm not sure how I will be able to maintain my position in Slytherin while associating with Harry Potter. It's one thing when I talk with you. Everyone knows what I can gain from you, and they respect that. You are the Queen. Harry Potter is an annoying Gryffindor who beats me at Quidditch. He's not even respected by the newspapers or the Ministry. There is a huge target on his back for his part in the last Wizarding War. I'm expected to be his rival."

Hermione watched Draco twirling his quill with his thumb and forefinger in a nervous gesture that spoke volumes about his desire to not ruin his chances with her. Hermione set down her book on the Animagus transformation, a guide, and spoke, "I get that, Draco. But you don't have to be openly hostile to Harry, or even his friend Ron, which you know very well will make Harry just as mad as if you attacked him personally. That's all I'm asking: that you refrain. Take a page from Blaise's book and just act indifferent."

Draco laughed at the mention of Blaise. "You won't believe this, but Pansy broke up with Blaise at the Yule Ball. Apparently, she had had enough of him giving her the cold shoulder one moment, and then wanting her the next. Blaise is saying he caught her in the rose gardens with another guy. It's a mess. Pansy, of course, is denying that there was ever another guy. It's basically turned into a gender war in Slytherin house."

Hermione smirked, "I just bet there was another guy. What do you think?"

"I don't know. You would think the other guy would have been named already, but he hasn't come out of the woodwork yet." Draco shrugged. "Knowing Pansy, though, she might have done something drastic after the way Blaise looked at you at the Ball, while you were dancing with Krum."

Hermione thought to herself, 'Who would kiss Pansy Parkinson and keep it this quiet?'

"If there is a guy, he is an excellent secret keeper. Not even a peep about his identity." Hermione mused. "Did Blaise get a good look at the guy she was kissing?"

Draco shook his head no. "Blaise says by the time he reached them, Pansy was alone. The guy disappeared into thin air, seemingly."

Hermione found that to be incredibly suspicious sounding. "Blaise is either lying, always a possibility, or the mystery man has some way of concealing himself. Perhaps a powerful Disillusionment Charm or an Invisibility Cloak."

It probably wasn't Harry, he was with Luna during the party. That left anyone else who had access to their own Cloak or to Harry's Cloak. Or those strong enough to cast the Disillusionment Charm perfectly when panicked. Which would leave certain rich students, Ron, and older students around 6th and 7th year. Out of those, who would most want people to not know they had been kissing Pansy Parkinson? Ron, again.

"I have some idea of who it might have been." Hermione said at last. "There is no evidence beyond the circumstantial however, so it's only a tentative guess. I don't see the point in revealing it though, if the two don't want it to be known."

Draco looked put out that he couldn't ferret the information out of her.

"Sorry, Draco. You will just have to figure it out for yourself." Hermione said as she went back to studying up on the Animagus transformation. She was thinking it might be useful to have an Animagus form if she needed to escape quickly from a sticky situation. She knew that an Animagus could go through all wards, which would also be useful. She wondered what her form would be, something cute and furry? She would die if it was a yak or something like that. In any case, it was a project for next year.

* * *

Rita Skeeter struck again, this time at Hagrid. He missed their next lesson and was substituted by Professor Grubbly-Plank. Hermione was fed up with that so-called journalist, how was she getting past the Headmaster and Hogwarts' wards? How was she sneaking around and hearing things she wasn't supposed to be there to hear?

Hermione mentally slapped herself. Of course, it was that simple. Skeeter must be an Animagus… but she wasn't on the list of registered Animagus. Neither was Sirius, of course, but that was quite different. Sirius wasn't using it to spy on people, as far as she knew.

She went back down to Hagrid's hut with Harry and Ron during lunch. They had to snap Hagrid out of the funk he was in about the article and Madame Maxime's rejection. Unfortunately, Hagrid didn't answer the door. He wasn't anywhere to be found all week. He neglected his classes, and he neglected his gamekeeper duties. He didn't even come to eat in the Great Hall at mealtimes.

Draco had kept his word so, while most of Slytherin House were idly taunting Harry about him missing Hagrid, he kept silent.

Harry hadn't gone to the Prefects' bathroom, she could tell, and he seemed to be putting it off until the last moment. Instead, he was planning to go to Hogsmeade during the next visit, which was halfway through January.

"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the castle being empty," she said. "Really get to work on that egg."

"Oh, I - I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now," Harry told her.

"Have you really?" Hermione spoke with some doubt. "Well done."

Harry looked incredibly guilty to have lied to her. Well, maybe he shouldn't have done that. Hopefully, his guilt would motivate him to do something about the egg sooner so that they could work out the clue together.

Ron was still acting incredibly jealous of Viktor, even though she had broken it off with him. She was really not in the mood to deal with his hysterics, with everything else that was going on.

While they were in the Three Broomsticks, she saw Ludo Bagman conspiring with a group of goblins. Bagman, seeing Harry, had to have a private word with him, which left Hermione in the company of Ron.

"What do you think he's talking with Harry about, 'Mione?" Ron spoke around his mouthful of butterbeer.

She shrugged. "I can't very well try to listen in if you are talking, now can I?"

Ron kept grumbling the whole time so she couldn't catch a word, but she thought Harry would tell them for sure, once he got back.

"What did he want?" Ron asked the moment Harry got back to the table. She cast Muffliato as soon as Harry sat down to talk.

"He offered to help me with the golden egg," spoke Harry.

"He shouldn't be doing that!" Hermione said, shocked at the corruption apparent in the system. "He's one of the judges!"

Harry agreed with her.

"What about the goblins, Harry?" she asked.

"They were looking for Crouch, according to Bagman," said Harry. "He's still ill. Hasn't been into work."

Probably because his son escaped his custody and did something horrible to him, Hermione thought.

"Maybe Percy's poisoning him," said Ron. "Probably thinks if Crouch snuffs it, he'll be made head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

Hermione glared at Ron, he could be quite insensitive sometimes.

"Uh-oh," said Ron, staring at the door.

Rita Skeeter entered the Three Broomsticks, wearing banana yellow robes today; her long nails were painted shocking pink, and she was accompanied by a paunchy photographer. They all glared at her as she approached. She was talking very fast and looked to be exceedingly satisfied about something.

"...didn't seem very keen to talk to us, did he, Bozo? Now, why would that be, do you think? And what's he doing with a pack of goblins in tow anyway? Showing them the sights… what nonsense… he was always a bad liar. Reckon something's up? Think we should do a bit of digging? 'Disgraced Ex-Head of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman…" Snappy start to a sentence, Bozo - we just need to find a story to fit it - "

"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" Harry spoke loudly.

The Muffliato didn't work when you were that loud so people turned to look at him. Hermione kept her eyes averted from what was soon to be a catastrophe.

Skeeter came over, falsely happy to see and speak with him.

"Harry!" she said, beaming. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join - ?"

Before Harry could make an arse of himself, she spoke up, "Mrs. or is it Miss? Anyway, Miss Skeeter, I'm afraid he can't join you as he only speaks with reporters on his terms. You see, as Hogwarts' champion, he is focused entirely on the competition and his ordinary school work. You will have to schedule a meeting with the Headmaster. And, if he allows it, then you can have an audience with him. I'm sorry we can't have an informal meeting without these sorts of constraints… but that's the way of things, isn't it?"

"Sit down, you silly girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand," said Rita Skeeter coldly, her eyes hardening as they fell on Hermione.

She looked around the pub at the shocked looking patrons, "You all heard that, right?" The patrons of the establishment all nodded "Great, you can be my character witnesses as I take on Miss Skeeter, here, for character defamation. Unless you would like to retract your statement?"

Rita bristled with indignation. "You just wait, girl… My pen is sharper than my bite."

Hermione laughed, "You do know that I can have you fired over this, right? I'm not nearly as powerless as the other people you hurt with your lies."

Then came the time to reveal her coup-de-grace. "I know how you have been bugging the school, Rita. Very naughty… wouldn't want that to get out now would you? Let's just call this off and you can stop writing slander about my friends. And I will keep your little secret."

It had the right effect as Rita Skeeter looked properly scared at last. She let Harry, Ron, and her pass without a word. Hermione blazed a trail off to Hagrid's next as she was done letting him beat himself up over that foul woman.

She pounded on the door and shouted, "Hagrid! Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a Giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being - "

The door opened, and she spoke before she saw who it was on the other side. "About t - !" She stopped speaking very suddenly, because she found herself face-to-face with Albus Dumbledore.

"Good afternoon," he said pleasantly, smiling down at them.

"We're here to see Hagrid." Hermione said, recovering from the shock.

"Yes, I surmised as much," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Why don't you come in?"

Hermione followed him in while answering politely, "Alright, thank you."

As Fang, Hagrid's boarhound, attacked Harry with love, she had the chance to get a good look at Hagrid himself. He was in a right state: his hair was a tangled mess, his eyes were puffy from crying, and his face was an uneven color.

She felt just awful for him. To have all of this happen to him because of some insensitive cow, oh and Rita, of course.

And so, they talked him back into coming back to work.

* * *

"So they said: Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground, and while you're searching, ponder this: we've taken what you'll sorely miss, an hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took, but past the hour - the prospect's black, too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

Hermione finished copying it down, line for line, and showed Harry her copy. "Is it all there?"

"Yeah, great idea, Hermione. Writing it down may make it easier for me to figure it out. All I know is it's probably Merpeople, Myrtle was in there… helping..." Harry shuddered. "But, how am I supposed to swim underwater for an hour?"

"We will figure it out somehow, Harry." Hermione spoke reasonably.

"And then, when I came out of the bathroom I noticed Bartemius Crouch, skulking around Snape's office," Harry laughed, "Weird, huh?"

"Tell me you didn't Harry," said Hermione.

"I did. And lost the map in the process. Thankfully, Moody was there to save me from Filch and Snape," Harry spoke, unaware of the completely wrong thing he had just said, "It would've sucked to be caught out of bounds, dripping wet, by the two of them."

For a moment, Hermione imagined being caught out of bounds by Severus while wearing nothing but a towel and wet from a bath. Her face heated. "Yeah, that would be embarrassing."

If Harry could have just seen Crouch Jr. was standing right in front of him. He might've been able to say something… they could have saved the real Moody… and now the map was in Barty's hands. Of all the dumb luck.

* * *

Hermione used all of her time that she could researching how to breathe underwater. She tried the charms section first, it wasn't in there. And then she tried potions, one was mentioned but it would take too long to brew. She looked up its ingredients, and finally found a mention of a plant that would let you breathe underwater for a limited time. Before she could tell Harry she was called to McGonagall's office by Fred and George.

She walked with them and wondered if she could trust the Weasley twins to deliver the message.

"Tell Harry something for me," Hermione said, chancing it, "He needs to eat gillyweed before the task. Right before he goes into the lake. Please, tell him."

"Of course," Fred said.

"We will." George finished.

She was surprised to see Ron, a girl who looked remarkably like a younger version of Fleur, and Cho Chang in the office already.

"Sit down, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall spoke. "Now that you are all here… I can inform you of why you are all here. You have been chosen by our champions as the things that they will miss the most. It should be obvious which of you belongs to which champion. We will be putting you under water soon, you will be perfectly safe, and when you wake up you will have been 'saved' by the champion who chose you."

Hermione found this to be incredibly strange. What if something did go wrong? Would she turn out like Myrtle, forever haunting the lake and watching boys take their clothes off?

* * *

Hermione broke the surface of the water, coughing, as Viktor pulled her to the wooden dock that had been erected. She felt freezing cold very suddenly, and kept close to him to leach off some of his heat. As soon as she got on the dock, she noticed the state of her clothes, her sweater and shirt were torn with what looked like shark bites. That would have been Viktor breaking her free of the ropes. She immediately divested herself of the cold and wet garments, much to everyone's shock. Didn't they know it was worse to stay in wet clothes when it was cold?

She noticed Professor Snape was nearby, handing her a towel. She shivered as she took it, down to only her undergarments, and spoke with her teeth chattering, "T-th-thank y-you, sir."

Madam Pomfrey then wrapped her in a warm blanket, after Hermione had the towel around herself. "You could have just dried your clothes with your wand, dear. But at least you won't give yourself pneumonia this way."

Hermione picked up her wand from the pile of wet clothes and pressed it to her chest, as she went over to Viktor and dried him with the spell. He already had on a towel and his fluffy fur cloak. She smiled, "Excellent Transfiguration, Viktor."

He puffed up a bit. "It vas okay. I vas just so vorried about you that I couldn't concentrate as hard as I usually vould."

"I was fine. The professors wouldn't have let anything bad happen to any of us. Thank you, though, it was really kind of you to practice saving me… like I saw you doing a few weeks ago."

Viktor looked a bit shy about that, "You saw me doing that?"

She nodded, "You don't have to worry, though, I wouldn't have a go about you being in the polar bear club."

He became a bit pink in the cheeks.

She laid off of him to watch Harry pulling Ron and Fleur's sister out of the lake. He was the last one up because he decided to stop to save the girl. He would never stop playing the hero, it seemed.

"Harry, well done!' She spoke as Harry finished swallowing some potion forced upon him by Madam Pomfrey. He waddled over to her and Krum while being wrapped tightly in his own blanket.

"Thanks, Hermione! You know if it wasn't Ron it would've been you, right?" Harry spoke while his eyes kept darting to Karkaroff behind them. Still suspicious of the wrong people. Typical Harry.

"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Her-my-own-knee." Viktor tried to pick it from her hair, but she just brushed it off impatiently.

"You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry... Did it take you ages to find us?"

"No… I found you okay…"

She realized her presupposition was correct. He had been trying to save them all. Thankfully, Harry got enough points to tie with Cedric. She hoped that would mean something come the third task.

* * *

Hermione was speaking with both the Headmaster and Professor Snape. She had asked for a meeting with them, to tell them about Rita Skeeter.

"She's turning herself into a beetle. She was in my hair, that's how she's going around Hogwarts. If you see her, you can do that spell you did on Peter Pettigrew, right?" Hermione finished telling them.

Professor Snape shrugged. "If I see the little insect, I will. Although, I'd be tempted to just crush her under my boot. What do you think would happen if I did that?"

The Headmaster was looking at Severus disapprovingly, she had to laugh. "Oh, never mind. Do that. That way is perfect."

The Headmaster tried to look at her next with his serious face but she noticed his eyes begin to twinkle. "Don't kid in front of an old man, Severus. I almost thought you were going to actually do it."

Severus inspected his fingernails for dirt as he said, "I might at that. I know several organic solvents that would take care of the remains. Make it so she takes a very long trip out of the country."

She pealed with laughter, not able to say anything as she was gasping for breath.

"Severus, you are being a bad influence on Miss Granger." Albus Dumbledore spoke with censure.

"Who, me?" He pointed to himself as he smirked. "Never. She is the bad influence. I learned quite a lot from the books on Chemistry she recommended to me. She is quite the criminal mastermind, Albus. Already, she had her cat off a man."

Tears were coming out of her eyes by now, and she could barely be understood with her laughing reaching fever pitch. "Stop, I can't- Hahahaha, Oh… Please. You slay me."

Dumbledore just looked between the two of them as if they were mental. That only made her laugh harder. "What? Severus, what's the matter with Miss Granger?"

"Irony, Albus, irony."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**The Royal Hedge Maze**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**"It is only the illustrious and great sovereign and the wise commander who are able to use the most intelligent people as spies, and are thus able to achieve great successes." ****_- Sun Zi's Art Of War_**

**I found that quote very fitting for this chapter.**

* * *

Hermione could hear Harry panicking down below, by the stone gargoyle. She was having another meeting with Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape, to plan what measures they would take to protect Harry, and if it came to it, herself. They were ironing out the details when she heard frantic pounding, and the Headmaster sent Professor Snape down to talk to him, while the Headmaster gave her two pins. They were Hogwarts emblems that you could pin to your sweater. Completely innocuous.

She could hear Harry speaking, now that the door was opened.

"I need to see Professor Dumbledore!" Harry shouted from below the revolving staircase. His voice echoed strangely on its way up into the Headmaster's office. "It's Mr. Crouch… he's just turned up… he's in the forest… he's asking -"

"What is this rubbish?" She heard Severus answer. It couldn't be helped, he had to act this way for his cover. "What are you talking about?"

"Mr. Crouch!" Harry repeated, shouting. "From the Ministry! He's ill or something - he's in the forest, he wants to see Dumbledore! Just give me the password up to -"

"The headmaster is busy, Potter," Severus spoke with an oddly pleased tone to his voice. He must be enjoying taunting Harry with what he could not have.

"I've got to tell Dumbledore!" Harry yelled.

"Didn't you hear me, Potter?"

Hermione was getting a bit frustrated too. "We might as well go down there, Headmaster. Unless there is anything else?"

Dumbledore shook his head no, his great beard rippling with the movement.

Hermione stood up and walked down the steps with the Headmaster right behind her.

"Professor!" Harry said, sidestepping Professor Snape before Professor Snape could speak, "Hermione? Anyway, Mr. Crouch is here - he's down in the forest, he wants to speak to you!"

Dumbledore didn't ask questions, he only said, "Lead the way." To which Harry was only happy to do so. Hermione and Severus made up the back of the strange little group. They were both deep in thought as to how they could turn this to their advantage. Ordinarily, she supposed Severus wouldn't have come with Dumbledore and Harry, but she was there and that made all the difference.

"What did Mr. Crouch say, Harry?" spoke Dumbledore as they made their way swiftly down the marble staircase.

"Said he wants to warn you… said he's done something terrible… he mentioned his son… and Bertha Jorkins… and - and Voldemort… something about Voldemort getting stronger…"

Severus hissed and clutched his forearm, the speaking of that name in his presence was probably painful if he reacted that way. Just one more little torture he put up with to do the right thing.

"Indeed," said Dumbledore, and he sped up to hurry out into the pitch black that was the Hogwarts grounds at night.

"He's not acting normally," Harry spoke as he hurried along beside the Headmaster. "He doesn't seem to know where he is. He keeps talking like he thinks Percy Weasley's there, and then he changes, and says he needs to see you… I left him with Viktor Krum."

"You did?" said Dumbledore sharply, and he began taking even longer strides, so that Harry and Hermione had to run to keep up. Severus was moving easily beside her in his usual gliding way. "Do you know if anybody else saw Mr. Crouch?"

"No," Harry answered, breathing a little harshly by now. "Krum and I were talking, Mr. Bagman had just finished telling us about the third task, it's a Maze by the way Hermione, we stayed behind, and then we saw Mr. Crouch coming out of the forest -"

Hermione saw the Beauxbatons carriage emerging from the darkness as Dumbledore spoke, "Where are they?"

"Over here," Harry spoke as he led them through the forest, past the carriage and into the thicket around the edge of the forest, and through the trees.

"Viktor?" Harry asked of the darkness. No one answered.

"They were here," Harry said to Dumbledore. "They were definitely somewhere around here…"

"Lumos," Dumbledore spoke as he lit his wand and held it up in front of them. It shined out into the dark, lighting up tree trunk after tree trunk, until it lit up a pair of feet.

Hermione ran out ahead of them, getting to Viktor first. He was sprawled on the forest's floor, unconscious by all appearances. She checked his pulse; he was still alive. Tears came spilling out of her eyes. Barty did this… she was sure of it… and all because she valued Severus' position and life over whoever could be hurt by Barty's plan. She felt a bit like a monster, for not caring as much as she should about someone whose only crime was being in the way of their grand plans.

She Ennervated him with her wand, and he sputtered to life. He came up quickly, and she did her best to get him to lie still.

"Her-my-own-knee?" Viktor said, looking confused. "He attacked me! The old madman attacked me! I vos looking around to see vare Potter had gone and he attacked from behind!"

"Lie still for a moment," Dumbledore spoke from behind her, while she held onto Viktor's shoulders.

Soon Hagrid and Fang had arrived on the scene; she surmised Dumbledore had sent him a Patronus message as he was the closest faculty member besides Severus to the scene. "Professor Dumbledore!"

"Hagrid, I need you to fetch Professor Karkaroff," said Dumbledore. "His student has been attacked. When you've done that, kindly alert Professor Moody -"

"No need, Dumbledore," spoke a wheezy growl. "I'm here."

She just bet that he was waiting in the forest the whole time until the Headmaster asked for him. How obvious could he be?

"Damn leg," he said furiously. "Would've been here quicker… what's happened? I saw you four rushing off into the forest and knew trouble must have been afoot. Especially when I heard Potter mentioning Crouch -"

"Crouch?" Hagrid spoke blankly.

"Karkaroff, please, Hagrid!" Dumbledore spoke sharply.

"Oh yeah… right y'are, Professor…" Hagrid said, before he turned and disappeared into the dark trees, Fang following after him obediently.

"I don't know where Barty Crouch is," Dumbledore told Moody-Crouch, "but it is essential that we find him."

Really, they already knew what Crouch would have told them, but Barty Jr. didn't need to know that. They were playing this as close to how they would have if they hadn't known. Thereby blind man's bluffing Crouch Jr into a trap of his own making.

"I'm onto it," growled Moody-Crouch, and he pulled out his wand and limped off into the forest.

They all remained quiet, with Hermione only staring out into the dark forest, as they waited for Karkaroff to appear. She knew now that Crouch was probably dead, and transfigured into a leaf or something else you would commonly find in the forest. She shivered, not from the cold outside, but the cold inside.

She helped Krum into a sitting position as she saw Karkaroff approaching with Hagrid and Fang. He looked pale and agitated, which by rights he should be, in his sleek silver furs.

"What is this?" Karkaroff cried when he saw Krum on the ground and the four of them beside him, he looked especially harshly at her and Severus. "What's going on?"

"I vos attacked!" Viktor spoke while rubbing his head. "Mr. Crouch or votever his name -"

"Crouch attacked you? Crouch attacked you? The Triwizard judge?"

"Igor," Both Dumbledore and Severus had begun, but Karkaroff didn't want to listen to it. He drew himself up, clutching his furs around him, looking livid.

"Treachery!" he bellowed, pointing at Dumbledore. "It is a plot! You and your Ministry of Magic have lured me here under false pretenses, Dumbledore! This is not an equal competition! First you sneak Potter into the tournament, though he is underage! Now one of your Ministry friends attempts to put my champion out of action! I smell double-dealing and corruption in this whole affair, and you, Dumbledore, you, with your talk of closer international wizarding links, of rebuilding old ties, of forgetting old differences-"

Before Karkaroff could say anymore, she spoke, "Professor, you have a point."

He turned to look at her, the wind being cut from his sails at someone agreeing with him. Someone he considered to be on "their" side. "I do?"

"Yes, you do. The Triwizard Tournament is a fraud, in my honest opinion. They should not have let Harry participate, and they should have investigated Moody's claims that it was all a setup to get Harry hurt or killed. Also, they have three judges from Britain while there is one each from France and Bulgaria, or wherever it is Durmstrang is from. A German-speaking nation by my estimation. How is that fair? It was stupidly corrupt to begin with and I don't see why you agreed to participate on those terms. You should have asked for two more judges on your side as well as on Beauxbatons' side. But, here's the part I don't agree with, I don't think it was a plot hatched by Dumbledore to do something nefarious to you or Viktor. I think it's more apt to not blame malice for what was probably simple stupidity."

Severus chuckled beside her. "She has a point, Igor. The Headmaster isn't all that concerned with you or Viktor, he's too worried about his precious Potter. I doubt he has put much thought at all into what you or Viktor are doing here."

"Hagrid, kindly escort Harry up to the castle." Dumbledore spoke, trying to prevent the boy-wonder from seeing a less than evil side to Professor Snape, not that Harry hadn't already seen that when Severus had saved his arse from Quirrell with the broom incident. "Take him right up to Gryffindor Tower. And Harry - I want you to stay there. Anything you might want to do - any owls you might want to send - they can wait until morning, do you understand me?"

"Er - yes," Harry spoke as he stared at him. He looked like he was wondering how Dumbledore had seemed to read his mind. That's easy, probably because he was, Harry.

Hagrid left Fang with the three of them and Professor Karkaroff.

"This is our Queen, Igor." Severus spoke, "Do you remember the old Queens and Kings of old? There are less and less now, but she has turned up and can wield the Royal Wand."

Hermione displayed the wand for Karkaroff to inspect. "Prove this really is a Royal Wand."

"Snap your wand and give it to me, I can repair it with this wand." Hermione spoke calmly. Karkaroff reacted as you might expect. He backed away quickly, clutching at where his wand was kept in his holster.

"Or you can try to touch it, of course, but I don't recommend that as it can be quite unpleasant." Hermione held the tip of the wand out for him to try to touch.

As he got within a millimeter of touching it, a blast of purple light knocked him onto his knees. He couldn't get up until she soothed her wand.

"What was that?" Karkaroff spoke wearily.

Hermione shrugged, "As far as I'm aware it's like a car alarm, a really effective one, so a wand alarm I guess. It's some sort of ancient magic fused into the very makeup of the wand itself. It won't let anyone touch it besides the true wielder of the wand."

"Severus, you can take Miss Granger back to her rooms now. I think we've all had enough excitement for one day. I will wait here for Professor Moody to get back with information on Mr. Crouch." Albus Dumbledore spoke, shooing them; Professor Snape and her back to the castle, and Professor Karkaroff and Viktor back to their ship.

* * *

Hermione collapsed into her couch as soon as she got back from the forest with Severus. She laid down on it, and soon Crookshanks had hopped up onto her and laid down across her leg and belly. He was huge for a cat.

She noticed Severus standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Oh, come on in. It's fine, I won't attack you with my feminine wiles."

He laughed and crossed the room to sit down in the loveseat, crossing his feet after placing them on the coffee table. "Impossible, Hermione."

She pet Crookshanks distractedly, wondering just what she should say about Mr. Crouch. She hadn't liked him on principle, but he was likely dead because of their inaction. "In a way, I sacrificed that man tonight, for you. How am I to deal with that kind of decision?"

Severus had his hands crossed over his chest, pulling his cape around him like a shield. "Day by day. As you know, it was him or me. And I'm more likely to be of benefit in the future. We have to fight the final battle sometime, we can't put it off forever. At the very least, if we do it soon, we can motivate some people to come to our side."

Hermione let out a frustrated sigh. "That may be true. But what if I could make some kind of deal with the Dark Lord? Can he be reasoned with?"

Severus chuckled darkly, "Not anymore, maybe years ago he could have been. But the dark magic has taken that from him. The Horcruxes, if that is indeed what he is using to become immortal, take a bit of your soul to make each time. And he has made more than one by all estimations."

"I think Moody-Crouch will make his move at the third task. We should bug the cup, and I know just who should be the one to do it. We will have to pay the horrible woman but everyone has their price." Hermione spoke calmly, soothed by Crookshanks' purring.

"I will contact Lucius, who can make the deal with Skeeter." Severus answered, readily understanding her need to document the Dark Lord's rise. "I'll make sure he knows to wipe her memory of who asked for it after it is done."

She had fallen asleep sometime after that, she wasn't sure just when.

* * *

"And he trusts Snape?" Ron spoke, as Harry was telling them of the memories that he had seen in Headmaster Dumbledore's pensieve. "He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," said Harry; it was clear he was aligning himself with Ron.

"Professor Snape, Ron." Hermione corrected. "He is my faculty adviser, and he's really not that bad. This only proves that he is working with Dumbledore; that's what Dumbledore must have meant. He probably has to maintain his cover so he can be useful to the Headmaster."

"All thirteen years, Hermione? And he wasn't exactly the nicest guy during school according to Sirius." Ron countered.

Hermione rose her eyebrow at that bit of news; Sirius was talking badly of Severus? "They weren't friendly in school. Would you expect him to sing his praises after stalking him for seven years, only to taunt and jinx him with his three other friends? Sirius should shut his gob about Professor Snape."

Hermione noticed Harry and Ron's stunned faces, had she said too much?

"Hermione," Harry started to say, "Just… how much time do you spend with Professor Snape?"

Hermione smiled slowly in dawning comprehension. "Enough. Maybe as much as you spend with Sirius. Certainly enough to know if he's an evil wizard."

"Well, I think you must be bonkers," Ron spoke, "but… you've never been wrong before. Except that thing with-"

Hermione laughed shakily, "Hey, don't mention that. I'm trying to repress it."

"All right, Hermione," Harry smiled indulgently, "We'll trust you. Just- help me get through the third task."

"You're on." Hermione shook his hand.

* * *

She hadn't heard a peep from Rita Skeeter since she had last spoken to her. Which was the best gift that money couldn't buy, according to Hermione. As for her role in the War to come, that was the best gift money could buy.

On the morning of the third task, Hermione gave Harry his pin. "This is from Dumbledore. He wants you to wear it to support Hogwarts during the third task. Wear it, Harry. Don't disappoint the Headmaster."

She had hers on already. If anything happened to Harry, she could summon him back to her. They figured she would probably be safe. If she got in trouble, she could use the pin to get back to safety at Hogwarts.

"Okay," Harry spoke as he pinned it on without asking anymore questions. In some ways, it was better that Harry wasn't very analytical.

Luna was beside him wearing her lion head costume. Harry turned back to talk to her. They were having a discussion about what it was like to grow up near the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. Luna was distracting him from his pre-tournament jitters.

Hermione was trying not to panic about the exams scheduled for today, which Harry was exempt from.

"Don't worry, 'Mione. You'll do great. You'll probably break all sorts of fourth year exam records. They'll have you teaching the material instead." Ron tried to help her relax.

Hermione smiled, thanking him for trying. She looked up to the Head Table, and remembered what Professor Snape had told her about the exams. None of them even mattered, except for the OWLs and NEWTs. They'd end up burning them after they released the scores. She felt calmer already.

"Hermione, you're staring at him." Harry teased her.

She turned back to the people at her table. "Sorry. I was just remembering a piece of advice he gave me about exams."

"Speaking of which, we'd better go. The History of Magic exam begins soon." Ron spoke, stuffing another rasher into his mouth.

"Goodbye, Harry. And good luck." Hermione leaned over the table to give him a hug, and then left the Great Hall to take her exams.

* * *

Sirius and Remus had shown up to represent Harry as his family for the tournament. The Weasleys would have shown up but Professor McGonagall didn't think it would be fair for Harry to have so many people show up for him when only a few could show up for the others. Hermione was sitting in the stands next to Remus, Sirius was on his other side. Professor Snape was sitting next to her with Albus Dumbledore on his other side. Below them was Cedric's parents, Fleur's parents, and Viktor's parents. Below them were two rows of the staff. The stands were filled with cheering students and some of their parents as well. The Weasleys were in attendance and were sitting with Ron. You could spot them because they made a ginger spot in the sea of black and brown hair.

She looked down at the Quidditch Field, though it could hardly be called that with the twenty foot hedges now growing inside of it. In moments she had figured out the best possible route to get to the center of the maze, not that it would do Harry any good.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place with eighty-five points each - Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!" Birds scattered from the treetops of the Forbidden Forest at the sound of the applause and cheers in the stands. "In second place, with eighty points - Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!" More applause. "And in third place - Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

She applauded politely for Fleur as most were doing, except for Professor Snape who had his arms crossed over his chest and was scowling fiercely. Harry was waving at the Weasleys, he hadn't seen her up here. She waved at him, smiling brightly, until he saw her and Sirius. She considered herself his sister, plus Dumbledore wanted her nearby. Actually, Severus had proposed that and the Headmaster had quickly agreed.

After Harry stumbled through the hedges for awhile, he finally cast the Point Me spell. She had taught him that, and he hadn't thought to use it as soon as possible. She sighed, while beside her Severus smirked.

Then, after running across Cedric, who she had just seen escape Hagrid's Skrewts, Harry used his Patronus charm on what was obviously a boggart. Didn't he know that real dementors could be felt as well as seen? He should have known that. Finally, he defeated it with Riddikulus. Then he came across a golden, mist-like barrier. Naturally, he used the Reducto curse on it when Reducto only works on solid objects. Was Harry brain damaged?

He passed through the barrier after hearing Fleur scream. And then he just stood there for several minutes. "What's he doing?"

"He thinks up is down and down is up." Professor Snape laughed.

Harry had a close shave with a Skrewt, and then ran across Cedric being tortured by Viktor, who was obviously under the control of the Imperius Curse. Of course, Harry just stunned him.

Next came a sphinx, who spoke some riddles they couldn't quite hear.

Severus whispered it into her ear:

_"First think of the person who lives in disguise,_

_Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies._

_Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,_

_The middle of middle and end of the end?_

_And finally give me the sound often heard_

_During the search for a hard-to-find word._

_Now string them together, and answer me this,_

_Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"_

Hermione found herself on the brink of doing something foolish as he finished reciting the riddle. "Well, that's obvious, isn't it? It's a spider."

Apparently, for Harry, it wasn't obvious at all.

Because of his dallying with the sphinx, it looked like Cedric was going to get there first. Until they all saw the gigantic spider on a collision course with Cedric. Harry tried to warn him, to no avail, and then he attacked the spider with spells. They all bounced off. Finally, Cedric teamed up with Harry to Stupefy the thing, Cedric really was a great guy. Cedric helped Harry up and they wandered over to the cup together. He was arguing with Harry that he should take it. Hermione was in agreement with that, Cedric didn't have a pin to get him back to Hogwarts. She had a really bad feeling about that Cup.

And then they agreed to a tie. Hermione screamed, this wasn't right. No, Harry shouldn't have to watch this happen. She looked to Dumbledore, but Dumbledore wasn't willing to play his hand yet. They had to play this out.

On the count of three, they were both gone. The stands erupted in applause, for the moment not aware that this wasn't supposed to happen. She went to press her pin, but Severus stopped her hand. "Not yet."

She bit her lower lip and nodded. Her hands were clutching her skirt, knuckles white from the pressure. "Is she?"

"Yes, she is."

In the next few seconds, Cedric and the Cup were back. But without Harry. Cedric was... he was alive. That meant Rita Skeeter had saved him. Hermione's face split into a grin, Rita was going to get the biggest of bonuses.

Cedric was swarmed upon by the judges and the Headmaster, all wanting to know where Harry had gone. Hermione had rushed down there herself, riding the wake of the Headmaster and Professor Snape.

"He's in a graveyard, a muggle graveyard." Cedric was saying, sounding stunned. "There was a woman on the cup. She forced my hand back on the cup and I came back here. She must still be there. There was a man and a horrible screaming baby approaching when she pushed me. Harry had started retching as soon as they appeared. I don't think this was supposed to happen… was it?"

"No, no it wasn't Mr. Diggory. We are glad you are safe but we must know where Harry Potter is… it's imperative that you tell us anything else you remember." Dumbledore spoke in his soothing grandfatherly voice.

"I'm sorry," Cedric said rubbing his head, "That's all I know. It all happened so fast."

Awhile after that, once they got the full story from Cedric, she noticed Professor Snape disappear into the shadows, clutching his arm. She followed him to the back of the stands. She cast the Muffliato charm and began speaking to him in a low tone of voice, "He's calling. Is this it? Are you going?"

Severus looked at her panicked, truly panicked for the first time. "I don't know if I can. My legs have stopped working."

She held his other hand and spoke, "Nerves. You can do this. You have made headway with Crouch Jr. You told me so. Everything will be fine."

He was white with fear, she'd just have to do something he wouldn't expect to jog him out of it. She rose up onto her toes and kissed him. He was shaking with fear and unresponsive. She pulled back after a second to look into his dark eyes. They were fixed on her completely, no longer darting to and fro like a rabbit's would. His hand reached out to cup her cheek. "You strange, brilliant, beautiful girl…"

She sighed as he looked into her eyes longingly, before he whipped around and set off for the gates of Hogwarts at a speed she could never match. He turned into the wind and flew without a broom.

"Was that Severus leaving just now?" The Headmaster spoke behind her. She jumped, shocked to see him of all people.

"Yes, I convinced him to leave to maintain his cover." Hermione answered as smoothly as she could, trying not to think of how Severus' lips had felt under her own.

The Headmasters eyes only twinkled. "That was thoughtful of you, my dear."

Hermione nodded, trying her best not to squeak out an apology and run.

"You'll be how old by next year, Miss Granger?" Professor Dumbledore spoke.

"With the time turner, by next year this time, I will be 17 and three quarters. I'll be 17 come around Halloween next year." Hermione spoke truthfully. She had sped up the time it was taking to age by working so hard everyday, an extra six hours per day.

"Hmm, interesting." Dumbledore spoke as he puttered off, leaving her very confused. Did he just… almost… kind of… approve? Of course, Dumbledore was from a time when 17 wasn't all that young.

* * *

Harry returned what seemed like ages later. He was bleeding quite heavily, and he was almost rushed off with Moody-Crouch before Dumbledore stopped him with his superior magic. Dumbledore had the counter potion handy for the Polyjuice potion. "Did you think I wouldn't know- Did you think I wouldn't realize you weren't my friend Alastor Moody? You are an imposter. And I've caught you in my trap."

Hermione privately spoke, "My trap, actually, but who's counting?"

Bartemius Crouch Jr. was revealed after the counter potion took effect. He looked mad as his eyes darted through the crowd assembled at the Quidditch Field. "Guess who's back?" He spoke creepily. "And he is going to kill every last one of you. Even you, Dumbledore."

Soon, someone just stunned him. Tired of his maniacal laughter. The aurors took Crouch Jr. away, this time for real. Dumbledore and McGonagall retrieved the real Moody out of the trunk he was being kept in.

She waited up all night for Professor Snape to return, but he did not.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**The Royal Prefect**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******Stephen King said in an 2003 interview that Umbridge was "the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter."**

* * *

The last bit of term was spent mostly in quiet reflection. Harry wasn't much up to doing anything rowdy after his experience with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Rita Skeeter's articles proved to the mind of the public that Harry's story was true, which it was in this case, so they mostly left him alone. Some would ask him, naively curious, just what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was like. Harry would answer something sarcastic each time, like: Terrible dancer or rabid bird watcher or fond of kittens.

She was relieved to see Severus the next morning after the third task at the Head Table, looking rather more irritable than usual. She was almost finished building her Veritaserum resistance, and by the end of term she had done it. He was maintaining his distance from her, possibly ashamed that he had let her kiss him. She couldn't see why he should feel badly, she was the one who had forced herself on him.

Harry hadn't recognized the man who had helped the Dark Lord return to power. Nor had the Dark Lord revealed his name while Harry was listening. All they knew was that he now possessed a magical hand of pure silver. He was of average height and weight, he had dark hair and light blue eyes. Rather a lot like Tom Riddle himself, and also many of his other followers like Quirrell before him. But he definitely wasn't Quirrell, according to Harry.

The Dementors were removed from Azkaban and more trained Aurors were posted in their place. The Dementors are said to have fled to Voldemort. So it was rather a win-loss scenario.

Harry had split his winnings with Cedric and had given all 500 galleons to Fred and George, who were using it as capital to launch their own business. In some ways, the Weasley twins were incredibly Slytherin for Gryffindors. She supposed that is why she found them to be interesting.

Speaking of Slytherins, Draco had been especially quiet since the third task. It wasn't his family, his dad had come out alright. Maybe Voldemort was scheming with them to do something about her. She had to expect something like that, as come next year the Dark Lord would have put something into motion to deal with Harry, and she doubted he wanted her messing up his plans. She wanted so desperately to talk with Severus about it, but he wasn't seeing her.

In the end, she went back to her parents feeling particularly miserable. She'd had her first kiss, with the man she thought she could very well love, and now he wasn't even looking her way.

* * *

She next saw Severus at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. She wouldn't be joining until at least next year. She had tried to argue her case was very much different than Ron's, as she had to know these things much more than he did, but Molly Weasley wasn't budging. So, mostly, she helped clean up the place. It was while she was cleaning in the Library that he came in, with Headmaster Dumbledore in tow. They seemed to pay her no mind as they discussed Severus' role in the current war effort.

"And he trusts you?" the Headmaster spoke softly.

She swept her wand along the next book, clearing it of dust and other nasties.

"About as well as can be expected. I think he believes that I had been awaiting his return while maintaining my cover with you. I told him of the measures I had to take to make sure you trusted me. He accepted them and was quick to ask about the goings-on at Hogwarts. He seemed particularly interested in your state of mind. He also asked after Miss Granger. I think he is weary to start a war against her while he wages one against Harry Potter. He wants to know if she can be brought over to the side of the Dark Lord. I told him that if it pleased him I would try, as I had already formed a connection for him along those paths. He was very pleased indeed. Lucius and I are now his current favored." Severus darted his eyes over to her, and she felt her pulse quicken, "He praised our foresight."

She turned back to the books as the Headmaster spoke, "What do you think he means to do if he can win over the support of Miss Granger?"

Severus sighed, "I'm not at all sure about his ultimate plan for her. He seemed incredibly interested in the Royal Wand. Of course, I told him that it is impossible to wield except by the true ruler, and that it isn't fooled by enchantments or Polyjuice potion. I told him that it only recognizes the magical signature of the rightful Queen or King. So I think he really means to turn her to his side. Make her just like Bellatrix if he can manage it."

"Could you not persuade him not to… that seems a dangerous road to go down, Severus… I'm not sure Miss Granger is up to it." Dumbledore spoke, sounding like he was trying to make his concerns about her safety.

"Oh, honestly," She spoke, turning around from her dusting, "I'm not going to turn evil just because some puffed up egomaniac wants me to be his Dark Queen."

Severus laughed appreciatively, while the Headmaster looked disappointed that she wasn't taking his concerns seriously. "Tom can be very persuasive when he wants to be…"

"He has a serious case of the snake face now. Didn't you see Rita's article? I doubt he's going to seduce me to the Dark Side looking like he does." Hermione came over to sit with them, and give and get council.

"I doubt it will come to that, Albus. He likely just wants me to introduce her to the Dark Arts. Which we can do safely, as you are well aware, but you don't want to admit is possible." Severus pulled a small book from his robes and tossed it to her. "These are no more harmful than the curses and jinxes kids throw at each other. They are of my design."

"Severus, I'm not sure this is the right course of action." Dumbledore warned them.

"What do you think, my Queen?" Severus spoke with a quirk to his lips.

"I'll allow it," She answered. "on one condition; I get private lessons. I don't want to be learning this without a qualified instructor."

He bowed his head slightly to her, "As you wish."

"With the Dark Lord rising once again, we should look into a vulnerability in the person he despises the most. Harry, he needs to be taught to Occlude. I will do it, if you will allow me to practice Legilimency on him." Hermione had been running through her mind all of their weaknesses, and she found most of them to be within the Boy-Who-Lived himself. "I think we should also set up a place for him to practice defensive spells. He is remarkably untrained for someone you expect to fight in a war."

"He can use the Dueling Room," Severus sounded resigned, "I will not teach the boy Occlumency, however, we would get nowhere."

She smiled, "Great, that's one burden off my mind. Professor Dumbledore?"

The Headmaster also looked resigned, "You make a fair point, Miss Granger. Harry must learn to Occlude. Perhaps, I should be the one to teach him. I'm not sure how much time I will have this year to do so."

"Don't worry, I can be responsible and teach Harry to Occlude, Professor." Hermione continued smiling.

He only waved to show that she had won that argument. The Headmaster got up soon after that and left them alone in the Library. It was well after Midnight, and the rest of Grimmauld Place was undoubtedly asleep. Yet, they both warded the room on impulse.

She laughed softly in response as she looked across at him. He was sitting in one of the few chairs that didn't need to be reupholstered. He looked tired and grim from what he must have been going through these last few weeks. Seeing him after all that time, she knew that her feelings had only grown. She wanted to kiss away the stress lines he was developing on his face.

"Severus, I have missed you." She spoke without thinking about it. "It is true what they say: it is unbearable when you cannot speak to your best friend."

He said nothing. He kept his dark eyes fixed upon her as she moved closer to him. She sidled up to him, and placed her arms across his legs while she sat between them. He shook a little as she finally touched him.

"No one would have to know." She spoke as she crawled her way up, leaning her legs against the chair. "Just this once."

He seemed to have become caught in her spell, unable to move. She used that to her advantage, as she laid her lips upon his one more time. He was immobile, like the last time, but his lips had softened considerably. She stayed pressed against him for a long moment before he relaxed.

His hands came up slowly, shaking slightly, as they traveled up her arms. He grabbed onto her and pulled her back from him. But he had kissed her back, she had felt it at the very last moment. "Hermione, we can't."

She very much disagreed. "You can't, because they are worried you will abuse your position of power over me. But I can tell you, Severus, that you are no more in a position of power over me than anyone else I know. Why aren't they worried I will abuse my power over you?"

"Do not appeal to my sense of justice, Hermione, you may not like what you find out." Severus warned in a growl that set flames upon her skin.

"All the better." Hermione spoke as she worked her way up to sitting on his lap. "If there is no justice in the world, then it doesn't really matter what we may or may not do."

Severus' hands came back down her arms slowly in response. She felt herself burn.

"I know you feel as I do, Severus." She spoke as she placed her hands on the back of the chair, entrapping him between her arms. His hands had move to her waist, he held her tightly but kept her from moving. "Admit it."

He looked into her eyes, his own were glittering dangerously from the fire. "Say that I do… what would happen then?"

She smiled, he was admitting it in his own way. "We would be doing nothing wrong by showing each other how we feel, of course. The laws are wrong, Severus. We are right."

"The Dark Lord need not bother. You are a Dark Queen in your own right; tempting me as you do." He answered with a note of lust in his voice. "Look at what you are doing to me."

She wiggled forward and caught his lips again. This time he took part, although he was still keeping it at a chaste level. His hands ghosted over her bare legs. She was in naught but a camisole and shorts. Her sandals lay forgotten on the floor.

They pulled back at the same time. "Merlin," She whispered.

He laughed softly. "I know."

"We rule at kissing," Hermione smiled widely, "and after all the horror stories I heard from… certain people. I knew that must not be the case for everyone."

He smiled, playing with a strand of her hair. "All you, I'm sure."

She put her hands above her head and stretched, exposing her torso. "Tell me, what am I doing to you now?"

He growled; she took that to mean he approved. "Killing me... I'm not sure I mind."

She leaned forward again for another kiss. It sent goosebumps along her skin. She felt like she was floating, and falling, at the same time. He stroked patterns into the skin around her waist. She wondered what he might be writing. She pressed herself closer to him, she could feel his heart beating unevenly into her thin camisole. They broke off kissing for a moment, and she rested her head against his shoulder.

She felt his warm breath coast along the column of her neck. It was the sexiest thing she had ever felt.

* * *

Harry arrived within the week, at night, with Remus and the real Moody. There was also a rather clumsy auror named Tonks. Sirius wasn't with them as he refused to spend very much time in this old house. She couldn't very well blame him, it was pretty awful. The only upside was its collection of rare books, which Hermione was reading vociferously. Ron was upstairs, they hadn't talked much during the time they had been in the house together. She heard Mrs. Weasley shoo Harry upstairs to visit with Ron. Not into the Library to visit with her. She had the odd feeling that Mrs. Weasley didn't like her very much.

She sat down the book she had been reading, about ancient methods of the Animagus transformation, and headed quietly up the stairs. She had long ago learned to silence her footfalls to get past the wretched old woman in the portrait in the hall.

Hermione opened the door without knocking; Harry was talking with Ron already, but she sneaked up behind him and gave him a hug. He laughed, turning around to see her. She was surprised to see that Harry had gained a few inches on her. He was growing up. He even had some darkness to his peach fuzz by now.

"Harry! It's so good to see you!" Hermione spoke happily. "Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless - but we couldn't tell you anything. We swore to Dumbledore that we wouldn't, or he wouldn't let us write to you at all. I heard about the attack on your house by the Dementors. Then, they are calling for a Ministry hearing to judge you for using underage magic - it's outrageous! I've looked it up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations -"

"Let him breathe, Hermione," spoke Ron, chuckling from his spot on his bed, decorated Chudley Cannons style, of course.

Ron, of course, had shot up like a weed over the time they had been here. Access to Molly's cooking, perhaps? He still had his trademark ginger hair and blue eyes, and his freckles were as prominent as they ever were.

Harry looked like he had lost a few pounds. She really hated the Dursleys sometimes.

"I'm working on something, Harry. It will let us communicate without Dumbledore knowing about it. Then he won't be able to cut off our lines of communication." Hermione said as Hedwig flew over to land on Harry's shoulder, her feathers ruffling.

Harry looked like he wanted to get into a right sulk about being cut off from information for a month. "Yeah, okay… I just wish I could have been here under house arrest with my two best friends, rather than with the Dursleys."

Ron laughed, "Tell me about it, mate. It's not been all that easy being here though. They are working us like house-elves, no offense Hermione, and then leaving us alone most of the night while they scheme in the kitchen. Hermione won't even play chess with me. She's in love with the Library, I think."

"What else is new?" Harry taunted her. She took it in good humor.

"Well, the Library has interesting things to talk about, at least. It's more than I can say for you, Ronald Weasley." Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and rose her eyebrow imperiously.

"Oh man, Harry. How did we not notice it before? She's got his mannerisms down pat. I wonder when they'll combine to become one super brain with extra bossiness." Ron laughed as she blushed. "Couldn't you have had a crush on a more attractive teacher, Hermione? For sure, Lockhart, while a dunce, would have been better."

"I don't have a crush on Professor Snape, Ron!" She shouted, offended he had come so close to the truth. "Besides, let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. I'd be having a crush on a petri dish as far as Lockhart is concerned."

"Sorry, Ron, I have to agree with Hermione here… There is no way she could have had a crush on Lockhart- she already had a crush on Snape by that point!" Harry laughed.

"You couldn't just agree with me, could you Harry? I see how it is… See if I give you our super, special, awesome communication device." She pouted and threw herself down on his bed. Her bed was in a different room, courtesy of the paranoid Mrs. Weasley. As if she would ever do anything with these two. What if she had been lesbian? Then what, Mrs. Weasley?

She laughed inappropriately at the thought of her and Ginny. Harry and Ron were looking at her like she was nutters. "W-with your sister, Ron. Ahahahaha."

Ron went beet red. "What about my sister?"

"What if I was a lesbian for your sister? Then where would your mom put me? On the roof?" Hermione was still laughing at the absurdity.

Harry seemed to be thinking about that for a moment. "I don't know, Hermione. I don't think Ginny is quite your type. You and Cho Chang would be more believable. Or even Luna. You like the smart kids."

"My sister is smart!" Ron objected, "Hermione could totally go for her!"

She laughed harder. They were killing her.

"Fine, Hermione, you settle this once and for all. If you were lesbian… would you kiss Ron's sister?" Harry asked seriously.

Hermione thought about it and then shrugged, "Sure, I guess. I'd kiss her right now. I'm not really that much of a prude. I just haven't met anyone yet I would like to kiss."

"Besides Professor Snape," Ron teased.

She laughed, "Yes, besides Professor Snape."

She loved being able to lie with the truth. It was probably the best way to lie in her opinion. Let them make their own minds up.

* * *

There were some in the Ministry that were aligned with Fudge, and there was an equal portion aligned with her - and with Dumbledore. However, Cornelius Fudge had been under fire for trying to suppress the news that the Dark Lord had returned, so he was losing ground. He was desperate by now to use anything he could, anything at all, that would discredit Dumbledore and Harry. It came as no surprise then, that he would try to push for Harry's expulsion from Hogwarts, when Harry had only been defending himself.

Hermione sat next to Severus in the courtroom, and watched as Albus Dumbledore did what he was best at, manipulation. She could appreciate it as much as she despised it. She held her breath as he spoke, it was almost as if he was in his element as a Barrister.

"I think I might have found something in that house while cleaning. I recognized the magic on it so I slipped it into my bag while Kreacher wasn't looking. I'd like to take a look at it with you as soon as you are able." Hermione whispered to him; he only sneered down as he was watching Harry squirm.

"We do, in fact, have a witness to the presence of Dementors in that alleyway," Dumbledore spoke, it carried clearly through the courtroom, "other that Dudley Dursley, I mean."

Hermione laughed lightly, "Muggles are not even real people, are they?"

Professor Snape scowled, "Not to most Wizards, no… And they consider themselves above the Dark Lord."

She must have missed what Fudge had said because Dumbledore was speaking again.

"I may be wrong," spoke Dumbledore with his pleasant facade fully in place, "but I am sure that under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused has the right to present witnesses for his or her case? Isn't that the policy of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Bones?" Dumbledore neatly sidestepped having to address the question to Fudge.

Of course, the witness Dumbledore brought forth might have been less believable than Dudley. She was still wearing her carpet slippers.

She sat down in Dumbledore's chair, and he conjured a second one for himself.

"Full name?" Fudge spoke loudly when the witness had perched herself nervously on the very edge of her seat.

"Arabella Doreen Figg."

As it turned out Mrs. Figg was a squib living very nearby to Harry, probably on orders of Dumbledore. And squibs could see Dementors. Hermione now knew of a way to check if her mom or dad was a squib. Unless the line had been squibs for so long it did not matter.

"Who is that?" She asked Severus as she pointed surreptitiously at a large, toad-like woman now tittering under her breath to Minister Fudge.

Severus shuddered, "Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Dolores Umbridge considers herself very important. She thinks herself as good as any Pure-blood. Always making claims to this or that House. All of them unbacked, of course. She has a bit of a complex about her heritage in my opinion."

Hermione shrugged; it was typical behaviour for a power-hungry person.

After the trial, Dumbledore swept away from Harry without a word, or even a glance in his direction. She wondered exactly why Dumbledore was acting strangely toward Harry. He had never been exactly quiet in his preferential treatment of Harry before… and now he had given him the proverbial cold shoulder, what was going through Dumbledore's mind?

Hermione came down from the benches, with Severus looking bored beside her. Harry looked up at them in surprise. "I didn't think you would get to come to this, Hermione."

She hugged him quickly. "Congratulations on your acquittal, Harry," she spoke softly, "I'm allowed many such benefits because of my stubbornness. Molly was eventually persuaded to let me come in support of you when Professor Snape volunteered to take me himself."

Harry's eyebrows rose at that last part.

"Don't look so surprised, Potter," Severus spoke darkly, "I'm not a monster."

Harry laughed nervously, "Oh, I know that… I just thought you wouldn't want to do anything for any student."

Severus smirked beside her, "Miss Granger is not just any student. I have more responsibilities with regards to her. Which you will have to curb your curiosity about, as it's both Order and Royal business."

"Come on, Harry." Hermione spoke, leading them both out of the Ministry "Let's get back home. Ron will be pining for you, I'm sure."

* * *

Hermione had been named prefect, as had Ron, but her badge had the entire Hogwarts Crest on it, except where the H would have been there was a gleaming P. She wondered if there was still two from each house. She hoped she hadn't taken the spot of any of the others. Her question was soon answered when she entered the Prefect's Cabin on the Hogwarts Express.

She was met with the stares of Draco, Pansy, Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Anthony Goldstein, Padma Patil, and Parvati Patil. Ron was behind her in entering the somewhat larger than usual cabin. The Head Boy and Head Girl were also in attendance, but she was not familiar with them, they might have been seen around but she couldn't remember them.

"Hey, I'm here," She smiled as she looked at everyone, "Hermione Granger, if you don't know me."

Pansy made a disgusted noise with her throat. Draco smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up. Hannah waved happily at her, she'd always liked Hannah. Ernie nodded pleasantly. Padma and Parvati could be distinguished by their badges' color and the way Padma looked at her coolly while Parvati was busy looking at the Head Boy. Anthony had looked at her momentarily, before going back to his book.

"I'm Lancelot Scrivner," the Head Boy spoke, holding out his hand, "Pleased to meet you. And just call me Lance, please, my parents don't like it, but Lancelot is a mouthful in my opinion."

"And you," she answered politely.

"Freya Swott," said the Head Girl, also shaking Hermione's hand, "I've read all about you. You are quite a popular topic at my house."

She felt a little bad about using her celebrity status to get anything. "Oh? Good things I hope."

Freya smiled widely, "Of course! I think it's just so poignant, being discovered to be Wizard Royalty from such obscurity. And by the illustrious Malfoy family, of all people."

Draco preened in his seat.

"Quite poignant," Hermione spoke her agreement, "Also, completely unexpected as you might imagine. I was lucky that I had Draco there to lead me the right way. Who knows what mischief I would have gotten into without him."

She sat down next to Draco and saw Pansy, literally, snarl. "Relax, Pansy. We are all friends here. Isn't that right, Ron?"

Ron jumped, looking between Pansy and her in shock. Yep, he had been the unidentified suitor in the bushes.

"Y-yeah, I suppose." Ron spoke, bewildered by Hermione's odd behaviour.

She smiled, "I see this as an opportunity to mend fences. To really let go of old grievances and work toward a brighter future, for us, for Hogwarts, for the greater Wizarding World. What say ye all?"

Besides Ron and Pansy, everyone said aye cheerfully. She had them right where she wanted them.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**The Royal Club**

* * *

**Beta'd by the inscrutable, fantastic Bluefirefly5:**

******It seems Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge and their supporters might actually be psychotic. You see, the American Psychiatric Association gives this definition of ****_denial_****: "The individual deal with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by refusing to acknowledge some painful aspect of external reality or subjective experience. The term ****_psychotic denial_**** is used when there is gross impairment in reality testing." (And we know Fudge and friends must have impairment in their perception of reality, since they seem unable to see the pictures Rita took of Voldemort's return, even though those pictures were plastered in the ****_Daily Prophet_****...)**

* * *

Hermione sat with Luna for the Sorting Feast this term. She noted with concern that Hagrid wasn't among the staff gathered at the Head Table. Goldstein was still reading beside her, she didn't think he would be roused from his books if an entire herd of Griffins came crashing into the Hall.

And that's when she noticed something very wrong at the Head Table. The Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, Dolores Umbridge, was in attendance.

"Tell me she's not the new DADA professor, please, not her. The Dark Lord himself would probably be better." Hermione spoke grousingly.

Luna looked up from a drawing of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack she was penning, and gave the pink toad a look over. "She's unsettling."

Hermione could only agree with that statement.

_In times of old when I was new_

_And Hogwarts barely started_

_The founder of our noble school_

_Thought never to be parted:_

_United by a common goal,_

_They had the selfsame yearning,_

_To make the world's best magic school_

_And pass along their learning._

_"Together we will build and teach!"_

_The four good friends decided_

_And never did they dream that they_

_Might someday be divided,_

_For were there such friends anywhere_

_As Slytherin and Gryffindor?_

_Unless it was the second pair_

_Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?_

_So how could it have gone so wrong?_

_How could such friendships fail?_

_Why, I was there and so can tell_

_The whole sad, sorry tale._

_Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_

_Whose ancestry is purest."_

_Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose_

_Intelligence is surest."_

_Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_

_With brave deed to their name,"_

_Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,_

_And treat them just the same."_

_These differences caused little strife_

_When first they came to light,_

_For each of the four founders had_

_A House in which they might_

_Take only those they wanted, so,_

_For instance, Slytherin_

_Took only pure-blood wizards_

_Of great cunning, just like him,_

_And only those of sharpest mind_

_Were taught by Ravenclaw_

_While the bravest and the boldest_

_Went to daring Gryffindor._

_Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,_

_And taught them all she knew,_

_Thus the Houses and their founders_

_Retained friendships firm and true._

_So Hogwarts worked in harmony_

_For several happy years,_

_But then discord crept among us_

_Feeding on our faults and fears._

_The House that, like pillars four,_

_Had once held up our school,_

_Now turned upon each other and,_

_Divided, sought to rule._

_And for a while it seemed the school_

_Must meet an early end,_

_What with dueling and with fighting_

_And the clash of friend on friend_

_And at last there came a morning_

_When old Slytherin departed_

_And though the fighting then died out_

_He left us quite downhearted._

_And never since the founders four_

_Were whittled down to three_

_Have the Houses been united_

_As they once were meant to be._

_And now the Sorting Hat is here_

_And you all know the score:_

_I sort you into House_

_Because that is what I'm for,_

_But this year I'll go further_

_Listen closely to my song:_

_Though condemned I am to split you_

_Still I worry that it's wrong_

_Though I must fulfill my duty_

_And must quarter every year_

_Still I wonder whether sorting_

_May not bring the end I fear._

_Oh, know the perils, read the signs,_

_The warning history shows,_

_For our Hogwarts is in danger_

_From external, deadly foes_

_And we must unite inside her_

_Or we'll crumble from within_

_I have told you, I have warned you…_

_Let the Sorting now begin._

Hermione, and the rest of the school by extension, were flummoxed by the Sorting Hat's song. She remembered that vexing tone all too well from her own sorting. She wondered, would the hat do what it had done for her? Surely, someone wouldn't allow that. There would be mass panic. Rioting in the halls.

Hermione had her question answered on the very first name read by Professor McGonagall.

"Abercrombie, Euan."

The terrified looking boy became the very second member of the house of Hogwarts. He stood there looking confused after he took off the hat; McGonagall had him stand against the wall and wait.

Each and every name and student that came next, all the way to Zeller, Rose, became a member of the Hogwarts house. She was the only prefect for four houses worth of first years.

In the end, Professor McGonagall had to conjure another table and place it in front, between the other four house tables and the Head Table. The young first years filed in looking somewhere between confused and perplexed. Hermione got up, leaving Luna at the Ravenclaw table, and headed over to sit with her charges. She would have to speak with the Headmaster and the Deputy Headmistress soon, but she wanted to reassure the first years that everything would be fine.

"I'm Hermione Granger, your prefect, I have been in the Hogwarts house all alone for four school years. It's good to see such a large house now; maybe we can get house points and everything. We will show all those older students how it's done."

Dumbledore stood up to give his Start-of-Term speech, which was short and sweet, and did not mention that anything was amiss with the sorting. The Feast continued as usual. Food appeared on the fifth table and everything.

A dark haired girl beside her finally spoke, "So, I'm not the only one who heard that message, am I?"

The rest of the table looked up, alarmed.

Euan Abercrombie answered, "I thought it was just me for a minute there."

Hermione looked around the table, "What message?"

All the little faces turned to her. The girl from earlier spoke again, "About our secret common room. Not even the Headmaster knows where they are. We are supposed to walk past a stretch of wall next to a tapestry. It has a man on it that looks nutters. We do that three times while we think of needing to get to our common room, and then a door will show up. Out of nothing."

Another boy spoke, he was fair haired and bespectacled, "Somehow, I know the way. I've never even been inside Hogwarts before but I know how to get there."

Everyone nodded and there was a chorus of "Me, too!"s.

The day was shaping up to be stranger and stranger. After the feast, Umbridge bored them with her power hungry gibberish. She would see how well Hermione was cowed by such threats; which was not at all. And then she followed behind a troupe of first years, who led her to a rather unused corridor on the seventh floor.

As one, the first years walked back and forth three times, looking as if they were concentrating very hard. And then, right before Hermione's eyes, a door appeared. She followed the first years into a massive room. It was larger still than the Gryffindor common room, that she had only briefly seen. There were portraits of all four of Hogwarts founders on the walls. Certain sections were set aside to serve different needs, like the upstairs reading nook which had natural sunlight through its windows (even when it was dark out). There was a large, crackling fireplace. Plenty of comfortable seating in a neutral brown leather. Various throws in all the houses colors were thrown over the backs of the couches. Then there was the game section, which had gobstones, wizard's chess, exploding snap, and many other games.

A boy ran over there immediately, proclaiming, "This is awesome!"

Hermione smiled, happy to see that everyone was getting along, for the most part. They were just happy to be there at Hogwarts. "Bedtime is 11PM, everyone!" She spoke, using Sonorus to reach all of them without having to strain her vocal cords. She checked the individual dorms, all of their trunks and pets seemed to be there. When she thought of how she didn't really want to walk all the way down to her room, a door appeared for her. She waited until everyone was safely in bed before using it.

* * *

She had a meeting with the Headmaster early that morning, before breakfast. She found Hogwarts to be quite nice this early, with no echoing voices or pounding footsteps. She was up so early that no one had been up and about in the halls, except for Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape. They followed her all the way there like sentinels. She had left through the common room entrance, to check on the state of it in the morning. It hadn't burned down, so that was a good sign.

The Headmaster looked surprised to see the other two with her that morning. But he quickly recovered from his surprise and offered her some sweets, which she declined.

"Have you worked out a schedule for the new students? Will my schedule remain the same?" Hermione asked the most pertinent questions she could think of.

"Right down to it, I see. That's an admirable quality." Dumbledore spoke, twinkling. "Without houses we have had to split them up numerically. Keeping the class sizes balanced, while still keeping them from having the same classes with only a select group of their peers. Thankfully, Professor Vector worked that out late last night. So they will be receiving their schedules as normal after breakfast."

He handed the schedules to her, not Professor McGonagall.

"You will have to call their names, of course, but that shouldn't be too difficult, I should hope."

Hermione accepted the schedules and nodded politely to the Headmaster. "There is one more thing, Order business."

Immediately, Severus, McGonagall, and the Headmaster all strengthened the wards on the office by tenfold. "Speak, child."

"I'm not sure Professor McGonagall is in the loop regarding Tom Riddle's method of gaining immortality. But, if I can continue… I have found another Horcrux, I should think. It was at Grimmauld Place." She pulled the locket from the confines of her extendable bag.

"How did you recognize it as a Horcrux?" Dumbledore asked, looking at her quite closely. He had on a particularly sharp expression, as if he didn't quite trust her.

"The magic on it is tainted. I recognized its signature from another work of Riddles… the Dark Mark." Hermione answered vaguely.

Severus smiled slightly at her attempt at subterfuge against the Headmaster. "She has received training on that from me, Headmaster. I hope you don't mind. I thought it wise to train her on it for her own protection, as her adviser."

Dumbledore looked very disappointed, and would have said something to that effect if Professor McGonagall hadn't spoken up. "That's actually a really good idea. I wish we could get the board of governors to agree to it for every student. It would increase students ability in most classes, I should think."

"Of course, we can't afford the cost of the potions needed for each student," Severus sighed, "With an unlimited budget, oh, the things I could teach… In any case, this is definitely one of his Horcruxes. Do you still have the Basilisk venom that I gave you in this office, Headmaster?"

"Yes, it's kept under lock and key." Dumbledore spoke as he lifted a lock and key off his desk and a cylindrical chamber appeared with the jar of Basilisk venom.

She could tell that Severus didn't think that was very clever at all, by the way he was looking at the Headmaster.

The jar was still mostly full. They set up a barrier between them, all four people contributing to the magic lessened its strain on any one of them. As soon as the venom touched the locket, a dark force tried to work its way out of their shield. She kept her grip on her wand tight.

As it died, they all heard it say in a terrible, sinister whisper, "_You'll lose her just like you lost Lily… no one can love you..._"

After that came a strained silence, as Professor McGonagall looked appraisingly between Hermione and Severus. Then back to the Headmaster. And then back to them. She looked sternly at Severus more so than at Hermione. "What did that mean, exactly? Who are you afraid of losing, Severus? It's been years and years since your falling out with young Miss Evans, young man. You are a different man, now."

"I'm sorry, Minerva I - what?" Severus looked perplexed at what Professor McGonagall had actually said.

"You heard me, unless you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself. You have a right to friends, you know!" Professor McGonagall pinched him hard on the arm. "Now, buck up. Miss Granger is a far more sensible choice, in my opinion. She will make a good friend to you. And so help me Severus, if I hear you have abandoned her because of some false sense of morals, you will learn just why I am the world's leading expert on Transfiguration, not Albus."

Hermione was quite sure she had never seen Severus look quite so gobsmacked before. "Have you lost your mind, Minerva! I'm 19 years her senior -"

"Actually, you are only 17 years my senior now." Hermione helpfully added, she wasn't going to help him advocate against their continued relationship. "The time turner has been useful in so many ways."

Severus looked over to her with an expression of frustration. "Not the point, Hermione."

Professor McGonagall laughed, "Oh, so it's Hermione now. Not Miss Granger… interesting."

Severus soon gave up, being outnumbered on the matter. "Albus, surely you have something to say about this?"

Dumbledore only twinkled, "I'm only a crazy old man, what do I know? Excellent shielding, by the way, Miss Granger. Not many have the strength of will and faith in their magic to withstand such curses. Why, I'm sure that even some Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers would have found it impossible."

"Why is she here again? I didn't think Fudge had the political might anymore to make such demands on the school." Hermione asked, now thinking of it more fully.

Dumbledore went to sit behind his desk, after cleaning it of the former Horcrux and Basilisk venom. "That's a sticky question to answer. In short, it's a compromise I am making with him and his supporters if they agree to pass a few things to help prepare for the War. They are still unwilling to admit a War is coming, foolish optimism and a certain amount of sticking their heads in the sand… But they will agree to more security measures as a precaution… as they call it. In exchange, they wanted one of theirs at the school to oversee things. At the very least, by the end of the year, something nasty may happen to that woman."

"Albus!" Professor McGonagall tried to sound properly scandalized for but a moment, before she laughed. "That's not **may** happen… it **will** happen. I'm giving 1 in 2 that it will be at Miss Granger's hands as well."

Both Severus and the Headmaster tossed a galleon Professor McGonagall's way. She took out a ledger and marked their bets. "This is for Miss Granger, correct?" They both said yes.

"We're teachers, Hermione." Severus spoke, "We have to get our entertainment from somewhere."

* * *

She really hoped it was her that put an end to Dolores Umbridge. She hoped that it would be soon. The woman was insufferable; she had them reading the least useful text on defending yourself against the Dark Arts that there could possibly be. It might as well read: roll over and play dead. She point blank refused to admit that Voldemort was out there, even with the mountains of evidence against her position. Not only that, but Hermione had already finished reading the book by the end of the first week. Now, she had naught to do but stare at the words until her eyes crossed. She had taken to putting Severus' little book of spells on top of the horribly boring other book. She had found a spell inside of it that made the object invisible to all but the caster.

She enjoyed reading about the spells he had made. The book was actually a journal about his first few years after the end of the first War. So, they recounted tales of his growing pains with becoming a teacher at such a young age. He was at first somewhat enthusiastic to try to broaden the syllabus; that was his first mistake, according to him. He wrote about several things all at once, it seemed. She never realized it but he had quite the scatter brain. He covered that up well, from what she could tell. If she really thought about it, all the connections he made, in retrospect, made sense.

He was less cynical, this earlier version of himself. Only 19 years old then, he had lost everything but his life by that point. He kept crawling forward, on impulse, not giving in to complete despair. He gave much thought into how he could improve how Potions was taught, but the majority of the book was filled with new spells he had made and how he had come to make them. For someone whose speech at the first day of Potions class implied he thought little of foolish wand-waving, he thought quite a lot about it.

Harry had a detention on the very first day of Umbridge's class. The whole class had been in an outrage at that, according to Harry. She had Defense with the Ravenclaws that week. But, the whole class had revolted at that point, all of them pulling out copies of the Daily Prophet with Voldemort's face smiling sinisterly on the front page. They chanted, "He is back! He is back!" over and over again until Umbridge snapped and incendio'd all of their copies. She had then made them all write lines.

**I will not cause a riot in class. I will not tell ties**

She found that to be highly hypocritical of her; Umbridge had been the one telling lies after all. Like not needing to use a spell to become good at it, what hogwash. Theory only got you so far. Hermione had kept her head down, however, because she knew that in the long run… she would not have to suffer for this woman's lack of common sense. Her fellow students might, unless she pulled together a plan soon for getting the kind of education they needed to at least do well on the O.W.L.s.

* * *

Hermione enjoyed her extended curfew as a prefect. She could make her rounds early, see Severus in his office for Dark Arts training, and then still have enough time to make a late run of the castle to check for more rule-breakers on her way to bed. She had set up private lessons with Professor McGonagall as well, for Animagus training. They were meeting once a week on Saturday afternoon. By Merlin, she would have an educational school year, even with having a completely useless class with the Ministry plant.

She had also started Harry's Occlumency training, he didn't quite get why it might be useful, until she told him that both Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore could read minds. Legilimency was actually rather easy in comparison to its counterpart. Much like other somewhat dark spells, you just had to want to access that person's mind. You had to really want to rifle around in there, otherwise their mind would reflexively boot you out.

She found Harry's mind to be incredibly strange, his memories were all linked by pain. It seemed that he had only a few that were linked by happiness, and even fewer that were not emotionally weighted. She knew that her first task would be getting him to release his grip on those feelings, so they did not own him. If he could not do that, then he would be impossible to teach to occlude.

So, in their abandoned classroom, she had them sit on pillows and meditate. At first, he was antsy, not wanting to sit still. But the longer and more often they did it, the more she saw him relax into it. After their meditation, she noticed it was harder for her to enter his mind; he was in a better state to resist her efforts. This encouraged him to continue with the meditation. She really loved positive reinforcement, it worked better than most other methods almost all of the time.

Luna began to join them when she heard from Harry that they were meditating. She could even float, which neither Harry nor Hermione could do yet. She suspected that without magic, meditation would not be as effective, and vice-versa.

"I'm glad I found some others to meditate with. Most people in Ravenclaw are against it entirely." Luna said as they finished another session. "Of course, they don't believe in much of anything they can't read about to learn."

Hermione couldn't argue with that.

"Harry, remember to meditate every night before you sleep. It helps with ordinary nightmares as well as not so ordinary ones." Hermione instructed.

Harry sighed, "I've been trying to, but Ron snores almost immediately upon his head hitting the pillow, and the rest of the boys are quite loud in getting ready for bed. If only I had my own room like you."

"You will just have to persist." Hermione smiled, softening the statement somewhat. "If you do it enough, you can meditate anywhere. In any noise level environment."

Harry looked at Luna, to gauge whether or not what Hermione said was true. Luna gave him an enigmatic grin and said, "You might as well try… Hermione wouldn't lie."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Harry spoke begrudgingly, as he then promised to redouble his efforts.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Ron made Keeper, Harry's scar hurt some more but he wouldn't go and talk to Dumbledore about it, the twins were conducting product testing on the first years, and she made progress with many of her projects for this year. Percy had taken sides against his own family, and he was supporting the Minister's camp wholeheartedly, even going so far as to write a letter which suggested that Ron should cease being friends with her and Harry. What a backstabbing power grabber for someone from Gryffindor. The fact that he thought Umbridge was in anyway delightful said enough, in her opinion. But it looked like the awful pink toad would be taking on more responsibilities at Hogwarts. Joy.

Sirius informed Harry and Ron, through a Floo call, that Fudge was afraid that the Headmaster was forming a private army here at Hogwarts. Which gave Hermione an excellent idea. Fudge was scared of an elite force coming out of Hogwarts, was he? Well, that suited Hermione just fine. He'd see an elite force alright. She took the plan she had originally had to just teach defense for the exams, and changed it a bit to focus on dueling skills.

Hermione got together with her most elite members to strategize. She summoned Draco, Harry, Luna, Ginny, Susan, and Hannah to her abandoned classroom/training room. "Good evening everyone. I'm sure you are wondering just why I have called you all here. I aim to start a Defense Club that should give everyone practical experience in dueling. I will not allow the Minister's pettiness to ruin our chances for Outstanding O.W.L.s. More importantly, I won't let him make us into easily picked off casualties in a war he doesn't want to admit is coming. He's worried about an army coming out of Hogwarts that can overpower his Aurors. Let's do more than make him worried, let's give him something to worry about. Tell me now if you aren't all in. I have a contract here that's only interest is in the continued safety and prosperity of the club."

"My allegiance has always been yours, my Queen." Draco answered as he became the first signature on the list.

Harry was next, with Luna following after, and then Ginny. Susan and Hannah signed after debating it with each other for a moment, they didn't want to rush into something with that kind of commitment lightly.

She handed each of them medallions bearing the four animal mascots of Hogwarts in unity around the edge of the circle, with a large H in the middle. The opposite side was blank, but would transmit a message up to 100 characters long. In a manner like this:

xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxx

"Cool," Harry said as he looked at the medallion.

"What are these for, Hermione?" Susan asked sensibly.

She smiled at Harry's enthusiasm as she answered Susan's question, "Messages. Like this!"

She held the one she was wearing and thought what she wanted to say; the message showed up on all of them. She was still working on individual transmission.

xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxHIxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxSUSANxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxx

"Just hold it and think. Keep it to short thoughts only. Obviously, this has much potential for organizing large groups and moving them quietly through the castle, so that they can arrive en masse to one location without the Professors becoming wise to it." Hermione placed the medallion under her sweater. "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

The rest of them placed the medallions on their necks and under their sweaters or shirts.

"The next step of our plan is quite simple… We recruit people next Hogsmeade weekend. And then I show everyone our club room. And then we train. And if we are challenged, we crush the challenger. Be it professor or student. Umbridge can't take us all on. It's the same concept behind unions and strikes. We have the backing of the Headmaster. This is an official club, we just have a stricter goal than most clubs. And remember the first rule of Defense Club: don't talk about Defense Club."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**The Royal Inquisitor**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain (1478-1834) was a tribunal under the election of the Spanish monarchy, for upholding religious orthodoxy in their realm. It consisted of a Grand Inquisitor, who headed the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, made up of six members.**

* * *

**MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM**

**DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"**

"'High Inquisitor'?" Harry darkly spoke as Hermione showed him the front page article of The Daily Prophet, complete with an unflattering picture of the mistress of pink herself. "What does that mean?"

Hermione read aloud for Harry, who was finishing off his breakfast still. "_In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

"'_The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts for some time,' said Junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley. 'He is now responding to concerns voiced by anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve.'_

"_We here at The Daily Prophet investigated these claims and found no one to provide evidence that any letters were written to the Ministry at all. Furthermore,_

"_This is not the first time in recent weeks Fudge has mandated new laws to meddle at the Wizarding school. As recently as August 30th Educational Decree Twenty-two was passed, a law which gives the Ministry carte blanche to elect whomever they see fit, if the current headmaster has yet to secure a candidate for the position._

"_'That's how Dolores Umbridge came to be appointed to the teaching staff at Hogwarts,' said Weasley last night. 'Dumbledore couldn't find anyone, so the Minister put in Umbridge.'_

"_The Junior Assistant went on to cite more Ministry propaganda that we have elected not to report here._

"_We here at The Daily Prophet ask: Is this the beginning of the end of Meritocracy? When will Fudge address our concerns about the second coming of Lord Voldemort? Why hasn't the Ministry mandated more auror presence at Hogwarts?_

"_These questions likely won't be answered until Dumbledore's faction seizes control of the Ministry to remove it from the bumbling hands of Fudge and his supporters._

"_Wizengamot elders Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden are two of many that have vocally protested the introduction of the post of Inquisitor to Hogwarts._

"_'Hogwarts is a school, not an outpost of Cornelius Fudge's office,' said Madam Marchbanks. 'This is a further disgusting attempt to discredit Albus Dumbledore.' (For a full account of Madam Marchbanks' work defusing tension among certain goblin groups, turn to page 17)._"

Hermione put down the paper and finished her pumpkin juice, which had a little more pulp than was usual, as she looked at Harry, Luna, and Ron in turn. They were all sitting at the neutral table near the teachers and with the other Hogwarts House members.

The fifth hourglass was up in the entrance hall, it had white gems inside of it that sparkled rainbow colors when the light hit them just right. A variety of opal, most likely, if she knew her gemstones. They were shaped like perfect globes, all of them about an inch in diameter at most. Hermione was much enjoying receiving points after all this time without receiving any. Even with just one year of firsties and her contributing, they were keeping pace with the other houses just fine.

Her charges were not likely to make any sweeping generalizations about the other four houses because they knew now that it was all arbitrary, even if they didn't all have the vocabulary to say that. Hermione had to settle a few peoples issues over individual differences, but otherwise it wasn't as vehement as the ongoing hatred displayed by Gryffindors against Slytherins and vice-versa.

Mostly, her kids seemed puzzled by why the older students seemed to hate each other because of those artificial boundaries. She found it fascinating how quickly children adapted to changed circumstances. Even the ones who had expected to be placed in this or that house had accepted the change in course, and seemed all the better for it. They were learning to appreciate other students' differences. Just the other day a girl who would have been sorted Gryffindor defended a boy who would have been in Slytherin from some older bullies. He had thanked her for sticking up for him and promised that if he could, he would do the same for her. Hermione had awarded them both a few points for showing unity in the face of adversity.

"So now we know how Fudge is explaining his deal, when they passed this 'Educational Degree' after making the deal with Dumbledore. He forced her on us! Not satisfied with that, now he's given her the power to inspect other teachers!" Hermione was livid, she just knew Dumbledore's deal would backfire spectacularly. "I can't believe this. It's _outrageous_…"

"I know it is," Harry spoke as he examined the now faint scar from his detention.

Hermione thought that if she could get proof that Umbridge was torturing students, she could boot her on her arse, deal or no deal. Perhaps it was time to inform Rita of her next assignment?

But Ron was grinning at the news, which prompted the rest of them to ask, "What?"

"Oh, I can't wait to see McGonagall inspected," Ron spoke happily, wiggling in his seat. "Umbridge won't know what's hit her."

"She can't inspect every class, so I doubt we will see her on the first day of her inspections." Luna spoke, "Unless of course she can use time magic. Powdered hoof of the Crumple Horned Snorkack can give you access to the full stream of time."

Hermione had seen little evidence, read none, of the existence of the infamous CHS in any literature or from any other reputable source. So she discounted that as a possibility, for now. If anyone could find a creature that no one thought existed, it would be Luna.

They left for classes not long after and soon enough, Umbridge wasn't in any of them. She had so hoped that Umbridge would have inspected Professor Snape's class, it would have been lovely to see Umbridge cut down to size by his sharp wit. Harry had managed a D for his moonstone essay. She had managed a respectable E, for exceeds expectations, which was likely to be the highest grade Professor Snape would give anyone. She suspected that had she been judged on that by the actual examiners, that she would have received an O.

She didn't fault him for having higher standards, however, as it made her try that much harder to get an O from him. His opinion was far more important to her than that of some remote examiners from the future.

As Hermione was in Arithmancy, Harry and Ron were in Divination when Umbridge decided to inspect Professor Trelawney. The Divination's professor was then forced into making a prediction for Umbridge on the spot, to which Trelawney predicted that Umbridge was "in grave danger". Which she very well may be, considering both the post of DADA and Hermione's plan to oust her in whatever way was necessary.

And then Harry had managed to arrange to have another week's worth of detentions with Umbridge, after speaking rashly in her class in using the V word, and it wasn't the part of a woman's anatomy. Umbridge was unwilling to hear anything that contradicted her belief that Lord Voldemort was not back. Hermione was not sure why Harry kept trying to make her see what she so clearly did not want to see.

For her part, Hermione had simply made her opinions known that Slinkhard was ignoring the cases where a jinx could be used effectively in defensive combat. But her opinions meant very little in this classroom, at least to its "Professor".

Harry was making good progress on his meditation, but Umbridge was still getting under his skin, literally and figuratively. Hermione would hurt Umbridge for every ounce of pain that she had inflicted on Harry and the others who had spoken up in defense of him. Without Rita's article, how many would have let him suffer in silence?

* * *

Harry had points taken from him from not following McGonagall's instructions on not losing his temper or keeping his head down in Umbridge's presence. Angelina Johnson, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, had had a screaming row with him about missing more Quidditch practice, in front of everyone in the Great Hall, which prompted McGonagall to come over and take points from her and from Harry.

Hermione wanted to correct her, that Harry had not actually raised his voice or spoken in anger, but their was little time to argue the specifics of the exchange. She would have to speak with her about Umbridge's behaviour toward Harry, whether Harry wanted her to or not, at their next Animagus meeting. Hermione was at least pleased at the way McGonagall handled the toad when it came time for her inspection. She had actually gotten the creature that would be called a human to shut her gob for a while.

Umbridge was also in Care of Magical Creatures, but she left in a huff at not being able to get anyone in the class to speak badly of Hagrid, who was still absent for reasons unknown. Professor Grubbly-Plank had even told her that she was happy with the way things were run at the castle, all due to Dumbledore's management of course.

Knowing Harry was likely to be suffering that night, Hermione gave Ron a bowl with a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles. That would help, hopefully, with the pain after the cursed quill had bit into his flesh. Ron took it, no questions asked. Except he did say it would be useful for everyone to know about the solution, for their own detentions with her. She agreed to that, and she also had him sign as a member of her group a little bit earlier than the rest. He was a little put out that Harry hadn't said anything to him about it, until she mentioned the spell on it made her basically its secret keeper.

"Brilliant, 'Mione." Ron grinned widely at her as he placed his medallion close to his chest. "Are we having Harry teach or you?"

Hermione shrugged. "We could have a go at both of us, Harry knows more about what it's like to face the Dark Arts on the battlefield. And I have had training in the actual Dark Arts, actually I am training concurrently in that… and I have some dueling training, how to dodge… when to strike… all of that. I still can't cast a patronus, where Harry can cast one, a huge stag that is almost too bright to look at. The dementors were acting strange even then, I wonder why Fudge is so against Harry's story."

Ron laughed, "Probably because he's frightened that Dumbledore's going to take his job. There is even today a strong movement to get Albus Dumbledore elected as Minister. Only, everyone knows Dumbledore doesn't want the job. Fudge is just a paranoid git, that's all."

* * *

A couple of weeks later, she planned for everyone to gather prospective members at the Hog's Head on the first weekend in October. She sent the message to her elite force; she now included Ron because she hadn't wanted to chance it with Harry and Draco by also having Ron there at the original meeting. Which worked out well because they didn't snipe at each other the whole time, much to her relief.

She was making excellent progress in both her Dark Arts training and in her Animagus training, according to Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall, respectively. She had managed to turn one of her arms furry, so she knew that she was most likely going to turn into some kind of furry mammal, which excited her. She had paws with non retractable claws, so not a cat then.

"Excellent form, Miss Granger. I suspect you may be a Canid of some kind." Professor McGonagall spoke as she examined her furry arm. "Let's see, I will look into my book for the closest paw that resembles yours."

Hermione touched the paw with her human hand, she could feel it as if it was her own paw, which it was, but the sensation was unreal.

"Ah, yes. It's as I suspected. You are a wolf Animagus. Dissimilar to those who become werewolves, your transformation will be complete. It looks like you will be a fluffy dark brown wolf. You may be able to pass yourself off as a dog to keep people from suspecting you are an Animagus, although the muggles will wonder why wolves are back on the island again."

Hermione sighed, she had hoped to have a more inconspicuous animal to transform into but, in a way, she did feel a kinship with the wolf. "That is both good and bad news. At the very least I will have a form that can make a quick escape and works well to track others."

"I should think by the end of this term you will have mastered the Animagus transformation. You are quite the quick study, Miss Granger."

"Thank you, Professor. I wouldn't be able to get this far so quickly without your expert tutelage." Hermione said, changing her arm back to human.

"Well, that may be true." Professor McGonagall said sounding pleased to hear that from her. "But don't doubt for a second that you have a gift for this, Miss Granger. I'd like to see you do something after Hogwarts in the field of Transfiguration."

Hermione debated for a moment in saying anything about the torture conducted by Umbridge, as she didn't want to break Harry's confidence in her.

"Professor… there is one other thing. I was told not to say anything about it but I don't wish to see my friend suffer any longer, which will happen if I don't say anything. Should I go to you or Professor Dumbledore about it? It concerns one of the teachers."

Professor McGonagall had tea sent up and they sat down across from one another, her behind her desk with Hermione in a chair in front of it.

"Whatever it is, Miss Granger, I need to hear about it."

So she told her all that Umbridge was doing, the full horror of her detentions. "... I thought you should know because I don't think those pens should be used on students as a method of punishment. I believe they are against the schools rules, are they not? I believe the use of them against a minor is a criminal act."

"So it is, Miss Granger. I will inform the Headmaster of this immediately. You should head back to your common room. I cannot promise anything will be done about it, but I will do my best to have your detentions assigned to another teacher if she continues to assign them."

Hermione smiled, "Thank you, Professor. That may be enough for now. Good bye."

She left with a new hope springing up inside her.

* * *

They all met up inside the Hog's Head, and it was quite the group indeed. There were around 100 in total. **(AN: There were only 25 originally in the book but I figured more would join than that this time around. Now that they don't think Harry is a nutter.)** Most from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff but quite a few also from Ravenclaw. There were around five Slytherins only, and that was including Draco. Blaise hadn't decided to join because he didn't want to associate himself with "those of common birth". Daphne and her sister, Astoria, had as they were fairly close friends of Draco who weren't as focused on blood as the majority of Slytherin house. So had another younger boy named Graham Pritchard, he was only a second year. And a girl named Manami Ichijoh, also second year. Astoria, Manami, and Graham were close friends.

Luna hadn't brought in many people from her own house; they all thought she was batty. Most Ravenclaws came because of Padma, who had been recruited by Parvati, who had been recruited by Hannah in turn.

After a demonstration of her skills, the lot were quick to sign up, talking excitedly amongst one another. Harry had also summoned a fully corporeal patronus which had wowed them. His status was likely also a contributing factor as to why they got so many sign ups on their first day of recruiting. Likely after a few lessons, they would have more.

After everyone had signed, she handed them their medallions, and instructed them the same as she had before to be discreet with them.

The rest of the Hogsmeade visit was spent with a very jovial Sirius, he was convinced this was the year he would sweet talk Madam Rosmerta into going on a date with him. She did flirt with him a surprising amount, so he may be right about that.

* * *

There was a minor hiccup when Umbridge banned all unapproved by her clubs. Hermione sorted it out quickly, they would just have to do things without her approval then. Not like it made much of a difference. Harry would have to behave for a while, so that they could reform the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"You will notice," spoke Severus as the class fell silent upon entering the Potion's classroom. "that we have a guest with us today."

He made a sweeping gesture with his black clad arm to the dimmest corner of the room where Umbridge sat, clipboard on her knees. Harry gave a sidelong glance at her and Ron; he looked conflicted about who he hated more, Professor Snape or Umbridge.

"We are continuing with our Strengthening Solutions today, you will find your mixtures as you left them last lesson, if correctly made they should have matured well over the weekend - instructions" - He waved his wand - "on the board. Carry on."

Harry was so interested in watching Umbridge and Professor Snape that he nearly added pomegranate juice instead of salamander blood. And that was the third time he had nearly added the wrong ingredient.

Hermione was paying attention to both her potion and Harry's, as well as the conversation between Umbridge and Severus.

"Well, the class seems fairly advanced for their level," Umbridge spoke briskly to Professor Snape's back, as she followed him around the room as he checked on their potions. "Though I would question whether it is advisable to teach them a potion like the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus."

Severus straightened up slowly and turned to look at her. His lip was curled in the mockery of a smile. Didn't the woman realize how hard he had worked to develop a syllabus that was both challenging to the students and not expensive for the school to provide ingredients for… did she want him to only teach Potions theory? It was ludicrous.

"Now… how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" Umbridge asked, quill poised over her clipboard.

"Fourteen years," Severus replied without inflection. His expression was dark, unfathomable. Hermione added the next ingredient and watched her potion turn the appropriate color.

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?" Umbridge's voice grated against everyone's ears.

"Yes," Professor Snape hissed quietly in response.

"But you were unsuccessful?"

His lip curled more as he raised one imperious eyebrow.

"Obviously."

The sound of the quill scratching along the clipboard set Hermione on edge.

"And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?"

"Yes," Severus spoke, beginning to have a touch of anger in his voice and countenance.

"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?" asked Umbridge, her voice just shy of tittering. Hermione had never before had a strong urge to bash someone's head in with a cauldron, but she did now.

"I suggest you ask him," Severus spoke jerkily, his voice betraying him.

"Oh I shall," said Umbridge. "Yes, the Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers' - er - backgrounds…"

Hermione turned in her potion at the end of class, whereas Harry had to take a failing grade because his had been botched beyond all recognition. Hermione had Arithmancy next, but she looped around and headed back to Professor Snape's office. She would use her time turner after to get to Arithmancy on time.

He was in a foul mood by the time she knocked on the door and entered, so much so that he completely forgot to ward his office after her. She did her best warding but it wasn't quite up to his standard. Why would it be? He had far more experience than her.

"I have a plan," Hermione spoke as Severus slashed through his grading at lightning speed. "I believe, with the right help, we can have Umbridge sacked and land a boon for Dumbledore's side in the Ministry. If you could contact Rita again, we have a delicate job for her. She must interview some students who have been wronged by Umbridge and get proof that Umbridge was the one to do it."

Severus looked up from his markings, the scowl fading from his face. "That is the perfect plan, as then it won't be seen as us reneging on our promise by firing her. We could fire her to 'protect' the children. Rita will surely agree, Lucius will make the arrangements as last time."

"Hopefully she will never work again; she more than anyone deserves to be ostracized for being a monster." Hermione spoke vindictively.

Severus laughed, "I can't say I disagree."

"We need someone Umbridge could hurt that everyone would be in outrage over… I know just the girl." Hermione communicated using the medallion by pressing it into her skin.

Susan Bones

Make a scene in Umbridge's Class

We are staging her downfall

Not yet, will say when

"Who are you thinking of?" Severus asked as he set his quill back in the pot of red ink.

Hermione smiled coyly, "Susan Bones, the Wizengamot member's niece. She's a sweet and loveable Hufflepuff girl. The picture of innocence. It will ruin Umbridge forever."

"Your deviousness pleases me, if only I could claim you for Slytherin officially. Unfortunately that hat is a sneaky devil. How are you handling things, by the way? Is it difficult being in charge of four houses worth of first years?" He looked so concerned for her, he really was a caring man. Maybe not a particularly kind one.

Hermione shrugged half-heartedly and said quietly, "It's not so bad. They are mostly compliant to my rules. I have tried to get them to stop volunteering to test some of Fred and George's wares… But they persist for very little money in return. It's no wonder child labor was so popular. They have no idea of their own worth."

"I must say that while I hate their flagrant disregard for the school rules… the Weasley Twins are remarkably talented in potions. The skiving snackboxes in particular are a work of genius." Severus spoke idly.

Hermione's eyes widened dramatically, "You know about the snackboxes?"

"I know about a great many things, Hermione. The question is whether or not I actually care about them. Let Filch sort out these indiscretions, he always comes running to me anyway… might as well save myself the trouble." He smirked as he spoke cavalierly about Filch being his toady.

Her heart did a flip at the devil may care attitude he was displaying. "I'm afraid I must confess something of my own indiscretions that I should think you would rather hear from me than from Filch…"

* * *

After the interesting conversation that had followed her confession, Hermione had Arithmancy, which was not quite so interesting. And then DADA, in which she learned that Professor Trelawney was on probation due to her inspection going poorly. She'd told Umbridge she was in grave danger, so it seemed likely the seer had Seen correctly, even through her ridiculous glasses. Hermione had mostly studied a new book Severus had given her, these spells were a little more Dark.

Umbridge had tried to grab hold of Sirius while he was floo calling Harry late at night, and she'd managed it... only to have him tell her off for speaking, quite legally by Hogwarts rules, to his godson. He flounced out of Hogwarts after that.

That meant that it had been Umbridge that had injured Hedwig and intercepted Harry's mail. Harry wasn't having pains in his scar anymore, which either meant the Occlumency was working or that Voldemort was being quiet. She had the feeling it was the former, since Harry was now much better at keeping her out of his head. He had dissociated his memories and been able to lock them in a mind safe, just as she had explained to him. As for the Defense Club, Hermione had them all set up to meet in the Room of Requirement, when her first years were out. They had yet to have a meeting because of people's schedules, but she would set a date when she had found one suitable for everyone. Which was tonight as everyone had their clubs canceled on account of torrential rain.

She walked back and forth as the others watched while she thought:

_I need someplace to learn to fight… A place for us to practice… somewhere that Umbridge or anyone who supports her can't find us._

A door appeared in the wall as it had for the first years. Hermione reached out and turned the handle, pulled open the door, and made her way to the center of a cavernous room lit with torches in the style of those that decorated the dungeons.

The walls were lined with bookcases, and the floor was littered with large silk cushions instead of chairs. Hermione was tempted to just read, but she needed to co-teach with Harry so she had to restrain herself. She managed, just barely.

Soon the room was filled with a hundred people, all of them with a cushion. The room had anticipated the cushions needed perfectly.

When it came time to elect a leader, the votes were split evenly between Harry and Hermione. So she became Captain and Harry became Co-Captain. And then came time to decide a name and many strange ones were suggested. She quite liked Fred's suggestion to call it the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group… but they settled overwhelmingly on Dumbledore's Army, as suggested by Ginny.

Hermione taught them some basic dodge rolls, which made most of them ditch their robes and sweaters along the wall. Harry taught them the Disarming Charm next. Most of the second years had trouble with Expelliarmus, and most of the others weren't able to control where their opponents' wand went, which led to a few bruises on everyone. Harry was happy to learn dodging from her, but she could tell he was wondering where she had learned to move like that. She wondered how he would react if she told him about how Severus had taught her to move in so many ways. She thought he'd likely go puce.

Before she knew it, she was of age from a magical standpoint. And yet she knew it changed nothing. She would still have to wait until next year to learn to Apparate. She would still have to wait until she was done at Hogwarts to begin an openly acknowledged relationship with Severus. Her whole life seemed very much like she was hurrying up to wait.

Luna was supporting Harry and Ron again in the first match of the year, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. She and Harry were quietly enjoying their relationship publicly, no need to keep it behind closed doors. And before, that hadn't really bothered her, but with her 'birthday' she was feeling rather down at the prospect of two or more years of silence until it would be deemed acceptable for her to feel as she did for Severus. She was naturally more private regarding personal affairs but she knew that even at the end of two years, it would still be frowned upon. He would likely face censure for it. They would be wrong for doing so, as he had never pressured her into a relationship. If anything, she had pressured him.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**The Royal Flame**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**"What's in a name? That which we call a rose**

**By any other name would smell as sweet;"**

**-Shakespeare, ****Romeo and Juliet****: Act 2, Scene 2**

**I also want to thank newcomers who looked at my little profile: Japan and Spain.**

* * *

Ron walked off the pitch, stunned, they had won thanks to Harry's catch of the Snitch. Once again Harry was the glorious one and Ron was the bumbling, inept one. He could still hear the Slytherins taunting song ringing across the grounds. He remembered the roiling shame he felt at seeing Pansy directing the lot of them from the Slytherin section of the stands. She had smiled at him malevolently before starting, no flicker of guilt at hurting him in front of the entire school. He had to get away from everyone, so he ducked out of the celebration, and headed to a tree that he could hide behind for a few hours. It was a tall and thick oak, just on the outskirts of the forest.

She appeared for him not long after, standing before him unashamed and unaffected, as Ron felt his insides burn. His eyes traveled slowly from her shiny boots, up her black stocking-ed leg, to the swish of her school skirt, her hands defiantly placed on her hips, her chest held out in front of her, her slender neck with its Slytherin scarf hanging proudly, her lips curled up in an unfeeling smile, and her eyes coldly analyzing him.

Ron felt a white hot rage within him, and he shot up and grabbed her by her horrible scarf, slamming her back into the tree. "You like causing people pain, do you?"

She laughed at his face. He smashed his face into her roughly, rage and lust competing for dominance. She gasped; he tightened the scarf around her neck, choking her a little. Trying to make her feel.

She grabbed at his hair and kissed him back.

When he came down he noticed her breathing great gasps of air, and it pleased him to see her so weak and out of breath. She roughly spoke, "You can't have her, you know that don't you? Maybe once, in another world. But no matter how much you try to be worthy… you will never win her hand. You are a poor, filthy blood-traitor. You are lucky to be able to even touch me."

He smacked Pansy hard as he spoke, "Don't you dare speak of her. Never."

Pansy licked the blood from her cheek with her finger, sucking it provocatively. "Oh yeah, make me stop. Shut me up, Weasley. Her-my-"

Before she could finish what she would have said, Ron was upon her, pinning her to the ground. She hissed like the snake she was, as he slid his hand up her thigh. "I'm lucky, am I?"

"Yes, Weasley. You should be kissing my feet." She spoke insolently to him.

He bit her neck as he pushed himself against her, and she wriggled under him. "No bloody way I'm doing that."

"I need-" She whimpered. He had won.

When Ron came back to Gryffindor tower, it was to find out that Umbitch had banned Harry, Fred, and George from ever playing again. Harry hadn't questioned the mud on his uniform or the snow in his hair, thankfully. He felt so guilty that he hadn't been there to stop them from getting into a fight with Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy was conspicuously absent from the scene; he wondered how Hermione kept him on such a tight leash.

The only good news to be had was the return of Hagrid.

* * *

Hermione was much surprised to find out that Hagrid would be showing them thestrals for their lesson, the very same lesson that would be inspected by Umbridge. Hermione stood between Harry and Draco; they weren't speaking to each other but they weren't sniping at each other either. Pansy was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, and Ron kept giving Pansy complicated looks. She suspected that Ron would rather her not interfere. But she could not see this relationship going anywhere good.

The only people in the class that could see the thestrals were Hermione and Neville. Naturally, Umbridge targeted Neville for her questions instead of Hermione.

"You can see the thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" Umbridge simpered.

Neville nodded confidently, their DA meetings had really brought him out of his shell. He was now one of their best duelists.

"Whom did you see die?" she asked, indifferent to Neville's feelings.

Neville looked back at the thestrals as he spoke, "My grandad."

"And what do you think of them?" she spoke as she waved her stubby hand at the winged skeletal beings. The horses were now gnawing the last of the meat off the cow carcass Hagrid had tossed into their pen.

Neville looked right back at her as he spoke boldly, "They are majestic, aren't they? I find the fact that they are carnivores very interesting. They are a truly magical creature. My only complaint is their invisibility to the rest of the class."

Umbridge looked apoplectic, that was surely not what she had hoped Neville would say.

"And you, Granger?" Umbridge turned to her.

"I'd like to tell you that if they were so dangerous, they wouldn't have been pulling our carriages for years. One wonders if that means you think they are dangerous only if you know they are there. I have petted one on its flank before, they have skin reminiscent of a reptile. They exist only by death and they can only be seen through death. Why don't you ask me how I can see them when all of my family is alive and well?" Hermione smiled, and saw Draco smirking at the horrible woman from the corner of her eye.

"I won't be intimidated by you, Miss Granger." Umbridge spoke in an angry rush.

"Of course not, Professor Umbridge. I would not dream of it. But, know this, I have much more clout than you. Many more who would see to my protection. My familiar alone has saved me from a would-be assassin. His death, the assassin's death... Professor Umbridge, I saw him die bleeding before me. It was a tragedy, if only he could have left well enough alone." Hermione reached out to pet a curious foal, turning her back on the woman as if she wasn't there.

"W-well, Hagrid," Umbridge turned to look up at him again, speaking deliberately as if to a slow child. "I think I've got enough to be getting along with… You will receive the results of your inspection in ten days' time."

The toad left with her tail quite firmly between her legs. Hermione shared high fives with Draco and Harry, who then gave each other half-hearted smirks. She made a path in the snow ahead of them to get back to the castle with her wand, the tip shooting hot air that melted the snow drift.

Ron and Harry broke off to go to the greenhouses about midway through.

* * *

December arrived, with more snow and responsibilities in an upswing. Hermione was glad to be going on holiday with her parents to a ski resort. Harry was going home to Sirius, Ron was going home to the Burrow, and Luna to her home. Hermione felt that Harry would ask Luna to meet his Godfather over the break.

Luna was looking up above Harry, pointing at a large clump of white berries over his head, between them. "Mistletoe," She spoke dreamily.

Hermione smiled, watching Harry bend down slightly to sweetly kiss his girlfriend. "But what about the nargles?" Luna asked shakily.

"You'll save me from them, if it should come to that." Harry said lightly, laughing as he placed one more kiss on her.

Hermione turned away from the scene, she was trying not to get jealous of their freedom to express their love. She had spoken of her trip to Severus, maybe they could meet somewhere. She fantasized about being trapped in a cabin with him. Having to use each others body heat to keep warm. She met his eyes accidentally from across the Entrance Hall. She felt the heat of her thoughts all over her face. He smirked.

Soon after that, they were all on their way to their holiday destinations.

* * *

Hermione held the note in her hand from him, he would be here soon. Right outside her window, riding the wind like he had before. She looked out at the winter sky for a sign of him; the moon and stars were just visible behind a light layer of wispy clouds. She opened the window, letting the cold air in. She breathed deeply, the chill air waking her up. She watched the single candle flame flicker slightly and then hold steady. The flame was the signal to him.

She stepped back from the window as she had spotted him streaking across the mountain. She sat down on her bed and waited quietly for him to arrive. His entrance blew out the candle, it became dark. He closed the window behind him, along with the curtains. It was pitch black in the room, but she could feel his presence. The magic of his wards washed over the room. She felt safer than she had all week, exposed out here with only her own wards to protect herself and her parents.

He stood in front of her now, and she felt his hands reach out and cradle her face; they were quite cold. She scooted back farther onto the bed, he followed her onto it. His knees depressing the comforter around her thighs. She was wearing only a large shirt.

His lips found hers in the dark. She put her arms around his neck to steady herself, she felt like she was falling. She kissed him with her days of pent-up sexual frustration. He had his hands in her hair, stroking it, curling it around his fingers as he teased her mouth. They kissed languorously, each taking their time to explore the other. Soon she felt even the shirt was too much to be wearing, and she took it off without comment. He hissed as he took her in; there was just enough light now to see with their adjusted eyes. Everything had a muted hue, as if not quite real.

She closed her eyes in pleasure as his hand traveled out of her hair, down the column of her neck, and around the side of her breast. She pressed them into him, just to feel more of the sensation.

"Please. Don't stop." She whispered to him, her words warming his face.

He looked for a moment into her eyes, she had them only barely opened. "If you are sure… if you know that you can leave this memory locked away in your mind if it no longer pleases you… if it pains you to have this one night." Severus rumbled as he laid kisses of fire along her neck.

Hermione kissed him again, "If I have this night... I can wait an eternity for you."

He laughed and then nibbled lightly on her earlobe, causing pleasurable sensations to shoot across her skin. "An eternity is a very long time to wait. Let's not have such a story, my fair Hermione. Leave such tragedies to the Romeo & Juliet's of the world."

She gripped his black outer coat with her hands and growled, "All the better. Now… what do we do? I think it involves taking your clothes off too."

He blushed, his pale skin showing his embarrassment easily. He kissed her collarbone as he hid his face from her eyes. "Promise me you won't laugh at me?"

Hermione nodded, "I promise."

He slowly divested himself before her eyes. Only his pants and boots remained. She noticed that he much resembled the thestrals, he was basically skin and bone. He had just enough muscle to not look completely skeletal, and his skin was laced with pale scars. Her eyes were drawn to his chest, and she put her hand along the black hair that thinly ran down the middle. She felt his heartbeat, it was rapid and slightly unsteady. "Why would I have laughed?"

He shrugged; it reminded her of the thestrals moving their wing joints as they ate the carrion. "I'm… not exactly a greek god… some might have laughed at my poor looks."

She ran her fingertips over him in response. He shivered and pulled the covers over them. "Your looks suit me just fine, Severus."

He summoned a few floating balls of light that would last for an hour or so. They lit up the blanket fort with a soft glow. "You are too beautiful. A nymph, wild and free."

"Flattery will get you everywhere." She spoke, and teased his nipples. "Now, stop staring and touch me."

He chortled at her commanding attitude, and yet he obliged.

* * *

She cuddled into him, both of them naked and pleasantly exhausted. "I probably won't get a chance to say this for many more months… so I'm just going to say it."

He looked over at her with a strangely anxious expression.

She held his hand under the sheets. "I love you."

He blinked, "All this time, I didn't think it was possible. And then you just say it, perfectly naturally. Hermione, what have I done to deserve you?"

She kissed his bare shoulder, "Nothing… everything… a little in between. The important part is that I do love you. I had some idea that I might love you for quite some time… but what we shared just now makes it real to me. I love you."

He smiled, tears in his eyes, as he brought her to his chest for a crushing hug. "And I, you... more than anyone in my entire life."

She felt somehow that he meant quite a lot more with that than she knew.

* * *

Hermione came back to the school with everyone in a somber mood. Mr. Weasley had been attacked over the break, just before Christmas. He was still in a magically induced coma, a lucky break considering he might well have died if a night watchman hadn't stumbled onto him in time. Ron wasn't saying anything, none of the Weasleys were. It was a snake, they said, huge and poisonous. Apparently, it was the familiar of Lord Voldemort. He had had it since, at least, his return, but not from before his fall.

She wondered if Mr. Weasley would recover, she hoped so for her friends' sake. She couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for what had happened. Maybe, if she hadn't cut off Harry's connection to Voldemort, Harry would have seen something and he would have been able to warn someone.

She knew that Severus was working on an antidote for the venom that might save Mr. Weasley's life. He had suspended their Dark Arts training as a result. She was glad to give up her time alone with Severus if it meant Mr. Weasley would live. Although, a part of her wished she could be there with him, discovering the antidote together.

Even though his father was critically injured and may not ever wake up, Percy Weasley was still on the Minister's arm and hadn't even sent an owl to his mum. Hermione thought Percy may just be the lowest of the low.

"Did you know, Headmaster, did you suspect that Harry might have a link to-" She stopped here to look briefly in the direction of Severus, who was leaning casually against the bookcases in the Headmaster's office, "to… Tom Riddle's mind? You seemed averse to even looking at Harry when he was on trial. And you agreed so readily to my suggestion of teaching him Occlumency, but did not want to do so yourself. I know you will say you did not have the time, but do me the honor of not lying to my face. His dreams… the ones he had before I taught him to occlude… they were real, weren't they? Bertha Jorkins… when he saw her killed last year, that was real. Were you afraid that Riddle would spy on you, that he would reverse the chain and see what Harry was doing? Why didn't you tell me? I might have spoken something in Harry's ear that would have gone to Riddle's and gotten people killed. You can't take on this war effort alone, you know." Hermione was on her feet, a hair's breadth away from shouting at the insufferable old man.

The Headmaster sighed and spoke only three words, "I knew, yes." He looked to Severus for some kind of support from him.

"I'm with Miss Granger on this, Albus. You take on too much responsibility. You keep too much of the critical information to yourself. If Miss Granger hadn't gotten me thinking about methods the Dark Lord might have used to prolong his life, we might have never known about the Horcruxes when we could do the most good. You are planning everyone into these little rigid roles, when an adaptable force is far more useful to you. I value your wisdom and your forgiveness of my past… but I sometimes think you trust too little."

"Severus, you must understand… I have to protect you from knowing too much. If Tom broke you, all would be lost." Albus looked truly concerned, but not for Severus.

Hermione made a slight growl before she spoke, "Of course, blame it on him on one hand while saying you are doing it for him on the other. That's all well and good but where would we be if you broke, Headmaster Dumbledore? You may be quite powerful, but even powerful wizards like yourself can die of sickness and old age. That would set back the war effort considerably. And now, you are saved once again from what could have happened if you hadn't said anything, by me figuring it out in time. Only, Mr. Weasley pays the price for it… for this war."

"Miss Granger," The Headmaster spoke in warning, "You may be an adult but you are still a student here in this school. You wouldn't want to lose points for your house now, would you?"

She waved his threat off like a pesky fly, "Oh, go ahead and threaten me for speaking the truth… it's no more than Dolores Umbridge is already doing to Harry. Even less so, as it's only points. Know this, I expect to be a full member of the Order very soon. If I am not, I will run my own war effort without you. And it may not be exactly how you would like it. I have the means, the will, and the soldiers. Now, make me a partner of the Order of the Phoenix, or face the consequences."

The Headmaster looked taken aback by Hermione's demands. For a moment, it looked like he would toss her out on her ear, but then he began to laugh. A booming laugh the shook the portraits on their frames. "Oh, ahaha, oh. That was quite the performance, my dear girl. You really put the screws to me. Of course you may join the Order. You are of age. You have no reason not to be a part of it, since you have already contributed so much. I would be a foolish old man to say no to your offer. Severus?"

"I would be honored, Headmaster." Severus spoke as he pulled his wand from his sleeve.

"Take my hand, Miss Granger." Dumbledore spoke.

They gripped each other on the forearms in the traditional oath-making position. Severus held his wand over them and spoke the incantation that would bind her to the Order.

"Hermione Jean Granger, of legal age of consent, do you swear your life and death to the Order of the Phoenix along with your fealty?"

"I do."

"It is done."

The magic wrapped around their arms to bind the agreement, it was a serious oath. She felt a bit light headed afterward and asked to be dismissed. She fell into bed not long after and slept off the spell exhaustion.

* * *

The next morning, Hermione was confronted with the news of a mass breakout from Azkaban; many Death Eaters had escaped. Several aurors had died trying to keep the prisoners in, and the rest of the Death Eaters out. Most had escaped anyway, as the resources just weren't there to protect that point. People were calling for the Minister to step down from office, peacefully, but he wasn't budging. Thankfully, he wasn't passing anything anymore with regards to the High Inquisitor. The Ministry was in a stalemate. Now was the time, now would be the perfect time for Umbridge to be sacked for indecent conduct with the children.

By that evening, she had set it all up, and it had gone exactly as planned. The very next morning, news broke all over the castle, many of the students had also contributed to Rita's piece against Umbridge. She had been sacked by Dumbledore before tea was served. The students booed her out, all the way to the train. Most would be taking DA lessons with Hermione and Harry until their final exams.

Professor Trelawney's and Professor Hagrid's "probations" were immediately called off. The Ministry had been upset, more Fudge supporters had dropped like flies, becoming stout Dumbledore supporters. Fudge's time as Minister was soon to be at an end.

She continued doing Animagus training with Minerva, who Hermione found out was a rather canny old broad. She had Hermione and Severus pegged almost immediately, but didn't speak of it. Only saying that Hermione was well old enough to make her own decisions, and times of war are different than times of peace… you have to take what little joy you can, while you can.

By May, there was a full force attack on the Ministry; Voldemort had gone in to find something in the Department of Mysteries. He succeeded, according to Severus; he now knew the full prophecy. Which meant, the last thing he would want to do is to kill Harry Potter. Harry was a Horcrux, she couldn't believe it… Dumbledore would have known all along… Harry was to be sacrificed to win a war.

"You have to tell Harry, the prophecy I mean, he has to know." Hermione spoke clearly as the Headmaster looked down his nose at her, through his half moon glasses.

"And if I do? What does it matter now? Voldemort won't touch him, now that he knows that there is a piece of his soul residing in Harry's body." Dumbledore sounded eminently disappointed with the latest turn of events.

"It matters because Harry has a right to know why he was so important to the war. Why his parents were killed. Why you were setting him up to be killed as well. Did you even have a plan for how he was to get beyond that whole dying thing?" Hermione demanded, in full protective fury mode.

"The Deathly Hallows." Dumbledore answered as if that explained anything.

"The Deathly Hallows?"

"Three magical artifacts that when wielded by the same person, protects them from even death. The Elder Wand is one that you have no doubt heard of… I am its current master. The Cloak of Invisibility, owned by Harry James Potter and his father before him. The Resurrection Stone, somewhere in my office I believe. I would have gotten all three to him in time for the final battle… now I'm not sure that there will even be a final battle." Dumbledore looked lost now that so much had changed from how he thought events would proceed.

"Of course there will still be a final battle." Hermione spoke resolutely, "Just because a few of the details have changed… doesn't mean we give up now. The Deathly Hallows are a great idea, we can use that… We also need to get rid of all the other Horcruxes. Which, I may be wrong, but since finding out Harry is one, I can only guess that Tom Riddle's snake is also a Horcrux. I believe it is probably the last one."

Dumbledore nodded, "But, if Voldemort is not the one to kill him… the prophecy might not come true."

"I don't think it's that literal, Headmaster." Hermione smirked, "Prophecies are what you make of them."

Hermione handed in her time turner for the year and strongly insisted one more time that Harry be talked to of his role in things to come. He was an able Occlumens now, there was no good reason to keep him in the dark. She walked out of the office and left to catch the train back to London. Her parents were waiting for her with hugs and smiles. As long as she had them, she could brave the storm to come.

* * *

Trying to explain to her parents that she was older than her stated legal age on her birth certificate was hard work. Especially when her Professor was there to set harder wards on their house, and they noticed something was definitely going on between them.

"Mum, you don't understand. I'm over 17 now by quite a few months. Professor Snape is no more a sexual predator than Dad was when he went out with you. He is not taking advantage of me in any way, shape, or form." Hermione put her foot down.

Her Dad was still gripping Severus by the neck and holding him against the wall.

"Put him down, Dad. He's not dangerous." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"How long has this been going on, Hermione?" Her mum queried, trying to keep the peace but also get to the facts.

"A very long time for me as I have lived much longer in the space of the time you have lived… I would say since last summer, when I was already well past 16, up to now… we have been conducting a romantic relationship. Although, it was more recent that we had sex." Hermione spoke bluntly. Severus dropped out of her dad's nerveless fingers. Hermione quickly ushered her dad into a chair, as he looked like he might faint.

"And… were you careful?" Her mum continued.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, we have highly effective contraceptive potions and charms. We were both careful even though we were both quite new to a sexual relationship." Severus looked a little bit embarrassed to have his inexperience brought up in front of Hermione's mother.

Jean Granger gave Severus a calculating look. "Never? I find that hard to believe. How old are you?"

Severus looked very uncomfortable as he stood under her scrutiny. "36, as of this last January."

She looked even more astounded. "Really? You look older… you must have had a hard life."

"That is probably true. I feel that I have lived a hundred years some days… and other days I feel my experience has meant nothing without love. I love your daughter. I have only loved one other… and she died many years ago, always loving someone else… But I had still loved her for many years after her death. Living on in my memory, she still seemed alive. But Hermione is truly alive, she is a force of nature… your daughter. She swept me off my feet, as they say. I would have gone to my grave, unhappily hanging on to the memory of a girl who had never loved me back. Before Hermione had shown me true kindness and love. I would not have known how to smile again without her influence. So, I wanted to thank you both for having raised such a fine young woman."

Hermione smiled lovingly at Severus as her parents sniffed, unappreciative of his sentiments. "How could I not show you how to smile again? You become a different man when you smile, your age simply disappears. I could not ask for more than to see you happy, Severus."

Her parents coughed, she had started to move forward to kiss him. "Let's not get too carried away," Her dad spoke from his chair, "He is still your professor, after all."

She huffed. "It's not like I think of him as my professor when… well, you get the picture. And I have been completely professional and so has he with regards to the classroom. We both respect what the Professor/student role entails. There isn't any crossover."

Her mum sighed. "All right, it's over John. She has made her choice."

Hermione looked almost as shocked as everyone else in the room that her mother would give up so easily. "Mum… You mean it? You support me in this?"

"Really Jean, I don't think we should-"

"Oh, stuff it. She has grown up far more than what would have been possible under normal time. Presumably, she is telling us the truth about her real age. Also, she has shown remarkable responsibility about it all… I think she is ready for an adult relationship. If she wasn't then she would have said something much sooner than now. Say, our skiing trip perhaps."

Hermione blushed as her mum gave her a knowing look. She felt sure that her mum was psychic. Her dad may like the Sherlock novels, but her mum had always known somehow when she was up to no good.

Her dad grumbled something about not inviting him for Christmas and then left the room.

She hugged her mum tearfully. "Thank you. For everything."

"It's nothing, my love. I am your mother, it's my duty to look after both your health and happiness. I can see with my own eyes that this man makes you happy. He may not have been my first choice, certainly, but I had always seen you with someone your own age and probably muggle like your dad and I. Your life is turning out much more wonderful and terrible than I could have imagined it."

She was soothed by her mother's embrace, until she felt Severus trying to sneak away. "Oh no you don't. C'mere, join us."

Severus put his arms around her from the other side, looping them around her middle. He put his head on her shoulder, while her mom kissed her forehead. "I suppose you are part of the family now, Severus. I want to hear all about you. We must talk before you leave. Tell me about your own experience as a child at Hogwarts. Tell me about your parents, are they still alive? Tell me whatever you can."

"I will try," He murmured into Hermione's shoulder.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

**The Royal Cabinet**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******The Saxon legal system comprised a series of courts and a Witenagemot – a central council that advised the King on new laws and the distribution of land.**

* * *

**Ordinary Wizarding Level Results**

**Pass Grades**

**Outstanding (O)**

**Exceeds Expectations (E)**

**Acceptable (A)**

**Fail Grades**

**Poor (P)**

**Dreadful (D)**

**Troll (T)**

**Hermione Jean Granger has achieved:**

**Astronomy O**

**Care of Magical Creatures O**

**Charms O**

**Defense Against the Dark Arts O**

**Herbology O**

**History of Magic O**

**Potions O**

**Transfiguration O**

**Arithmancy O**

**Muggle Studies O**

**Study of Ancient Runes O**

Hermione's eyes went wide in their sockets; she had gotten top marks in all of her classes. She let out a tiny squeak and then began laughing giddily. "Eleven. I can't believe it, I can't. All eleven."

"Oh, look who's the girl genius," Ron said smiling fondly at her, "Percy got twelve, of course, the swot. But your eleven O.W.L.s seem far more impressive than his twelve."

Harry grinned indulgently at her as well, and she felt as if she was a particularly well trained show animal. "You deserve them, Hermione. No one works as hard as you. I honestly don't know where you get the time."

She blushed, guilty that she still kept the secret of the time turner from them. "The secret to my success is my excellent time-management skills."

Harry had informed her of the prophecy later that day, while they sat near the frog pond at the Burrow. She listened to him guiltily blame himself for the loss of the prophecy to Voldemort for several minutes, before she had to say something.

"Harry, no, it's not your fault. It was the fault of people much older than you. People who had the responsibility to safeguard the Ministry's most prized secrets and they blew it. Okay? So, it wasn't you."

Harry picked at the grass at his feet while staring gloomily into the pond.

"I thought I'd find you here," A dreamy voice spoke from behind them, "Hello, Hermione. How did you do on your O.W.L.s?"

"Eleven. All O's." Hermione watched as Luna made to sit next to a rather grumpy looking boy. "I guess I should go."

"Oh don't," Luna spoke as she held Harry's hand in the grass. "I don't mind. Eleven, though. The Ravenclaw sixth years are going to be so mad. They think you aren't a real intellectual. At least you think for a moment about whether or not I could be loony. That's more than they can say for themselves."

Hermione shrugged, "It's only one achievement. I will have many more before I can say that I have really accomplished something. Bigger fish, as they say."

"Hermione, don't be so humble. It makes me look bad." Harry spoke, as he seemed to have come back from his sulking match with the pond. "Let's go to Sirius'. He has hot springs."

Hermione, Harry, Luna, Ginny, and Ron all made their way over to Sirius' house by sunset. Sirius, Remus, and Tonks were already there. Hermione noticed a certain tension between Tonks and Remus. So she spoke, "Did we interrupt a double date? Who were you going to go with Sirius?"

Remus became incredibly flustered, but Tonks winked at her in appreciation for making Remus squirm. Remus choked on his drink. "T-this… this was order business."

Hermione examined him with scrutiny. "That explains the date clothes. I see far less rips in the robes than in your everyday ones. Also, there is a bouquet of flowers on the table, next to a book on learning to brew Wolfsbane. I'm sure if I had more time I could come up with far more proof, but it's already on your face. Tonks is a lucky girl, Remus. And she's quite a woman besides."

Everyone looked between her and Remus with a fascinated expression on their face. Except for Sirius, who was trying not to laugh, and Tonks, who was smiling prettily at the compliments. She noticed Tonks was going in a more natural shade of blonde, with aqua tips. "Nice hair, by the way. Oh, and can the rest of us use your hot springs, Sirius?"

Sirius agreed readily, and moved a still blushing Remus out of the way, as he prepared himself to apparate. "I'll see you both at the meeting place." He winked, as he winked out of view. Soon, Tonks and Remus also left, leaving the children alone in the house. The house that Mrs. Weasley thought Sirius was still in. Hijinks would most likely ensue.

Hermione transfigured her robes into a simple swimsuit. The Weasleys had brought theirs to change into, but Luna, Harry, and Hermione had to transfigure something to work. Harry made some swim trunks out of his pants. Luna turned her underclothes into a two piece swimsuit. The three of them were first in the warm, soothing water. Hermione leaned back and closed her eyes for a while. She felt Ron get in next to her, but she ignored it. The night air was cool on her face, the warm steam from the hot springs cooled on her skin.

"Any news about your father, Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron sighed. "He's looking better, they think he's done with the worst of it. Yet… He still hasn't come out of the coma. At first they were keeping him in a magically induced one to help him heal without him thrashing around and injuring himself further… But they took that off months ago, and he still hasn't woken up. Mum has been... really upset..."

Ginny made a slight sniffling noise. "We are all really worried. Even Percy has stopped in on occasion. Bill and Fleur are keeping her company in the house while we go back to school. They don't want her living alone."

Hermione put her hand to her face, the warm water traveling down over her nose and mouth. "I wish I could do something to help."

"There's nothing to be done now, but to wait." Ron spoke quietly, "Mum reads to him every day. The news is getting worse… the bridge… Madam Bones' death… everything is going to hell."

Hermione laughed deprecatingly, "The Death Eaters are an undisciplined terrorist group. If he had really wanted power, he would have worked from within the Ministry. We would have all been under his thumb by now. He could have had things the way he wanted them, if he had used politics not aggression."

Luna was the only one nodding along with her. "I agree. He's a threat to people's lives, he lacks the reach for more at this point. My Dad has been printing about it in the Quibbler."

"Let's hope your Dad doesn't become his enemy," Ron spoke bluntly. "He's still a pretty scary bloke."

Harry looked away from them and out past the reeds surrounding the area. "You don't know the half of it, Ron."

Hermione got tired of the hot springs sometime later, and made herself comfortable in Sirius' house. She and Harry were in separate bedrooms now, but not because Sirius was afraid something might happen. Hermione made them all some food; Sirius didn't have house-elves as a matter of personal choice.

Harry and Luna were still out there but she ignored them. She doubted anything would happen, and even if it did, it was none of her business.

Ginny looked a little forlorn, possibly because Harry had a girlfriend for some time now and it wasn't her. But Hermione knew it was more than likely not just that. Ron volunteered to play a game with her, any game, and they chose to play some Wizard's Chess, as it was too dark for Quidditch.

By Midnight the Weasleys went home, but she still hadn't seen Harry and Luna come back in. She peeked out of a window that showed the hot spring and immediately regretted it. She had seen a bit too much of the both of them, a lot more than she was comfortable with. She locked up the image in a box, mentally, and went on her way to bed. Hopefully, they would know to be careful.

* * *

Hermione remained within the confines of the Burrow, Sirius' house, and Luna's over the next few weeks. She spent most of her days reading Dark Arts books and watching the others play two-a-side Quidditch in the Weasleys' orchard (Harry and Luna against Ron and Ginny; Luna was easily distracted and Ginny was actually good enough to be on the Gryffindor team, so they were reasonably well matched) and her evenings pacing herself as Mrs. Weasley tried feeding her triple helpings of everything.

It would have been a happy, peaceful holiday had it not been for the stones of disappearances, odd accidents, even of deaths now appearing almost daily in the Prophet. Sometimes Bill brought home news before it even reached the paper. To Mrs. Weasley's displeasure, Harry's sixteenth birthday celebrations were marred by grisly tidings brought to the party by Remus Lupin, who was looking gaunt and grim, his brown hair streaked liberally with gray, his clothes more ragged and patched than ever.

"There have been another couple of Dementor attacks," he announced, as Mrs. Weasley passed him a large slice of birthday cake. "And they've found Igor Karkaroff's body in a shack up north. The Dark Mark had been set over it — well, frankly, I'm surprised he stayed alive for even a year after deserting the Death Eaters; Sirius's brother, Regulus, only managed a few days as far as I can remember."

"Yes, well," said Mrs. Weasley, frowning, "perhaps we should talk about something diff—"

"Did you hear about Florean Fortescue, Remus?" asked Bill, who was being plied with wine by Fleur. "The man who ran —"

"— the ice-cream place in Diagon Alley?" Harry interrupted, "He used to give me free ice creams. What's happened to him?"

"Dragged off, by the look of his place."

"Why?" asked Ron, while Mrs. Weasley pointedly glared at Bill.

"Who knows? He must've upset them somehow. He was a good man, Florean."

"Speaking of Diagon Alley," said Bill, "looks like Ollivander's gone too."

"The wandmaker?" said Ginny, looking startled.

"That's the one. Shop's empty. No sign of a struggle. No one knows whether he left voluntarily or was kidnapped."

"But wands — what'll people do for wands?"

"They'll make do with other makers," said Lupin. "But Ollivander was the best, and if the other side have got him it's not so good for us."

Hermione felt sure this was not a good sign indeed. The Dark Lord would be looking for a way to take out Harry without killing him, and he would also be looking into her. The Royal Wand probably taunted him with the knowledge that he could never wield it.

The day after this rather gloomy birthday tea, their letters and booklists arrived from Hogwarts. She was surprised to see Harry's included a badge: he had been made Quidditch Captain.

"That gives you equal status with prefects!" cried Hermione happily. "You can use our special bathroom now and everything!"

"Wow, I remember when Charlie wore one of these," said Ron, examining the badge with glee. "Harry, this is so cool, you're my Captain — if you let me back on the team, I suppose, ha ha..."

"Well, I don't suppose we can put off a trip to Diagon Alley much longer now you've got these," sighed Mrs. Weasley, looking down Ron's booklist. "We'll go on Saturday as long as Bill is available. I'm not going there without him."

"Mum, d'you honestly think You-Know-Who's going to be hiding behind a bookshelf in Flourish and Blotts?" sniggered Ron.

"Fortescue and Ollivander went on holiday, did they?" said Mrs. Weasley, firing up at once. "If you think security's a laughing matter, you can stay behind and I'll get your things myself—"

"No, I wanna come, I want to see Fred and George's shop!" said Ron hastily.

"Then you just buck up your ideas, young man, before I decide you're too immature to come with us!" said Mrs. Weasley angrily, snatching up her clock, all nine hands of which were still pointing at "mortal peril," and balancing it on top of a pile of just-laundered towels. "And that goes for returning to Hogwarts as well!"

Ron turned to stare incredulously at Harry as his mother hoisted the laundry basket and the teetering clock into her arms, and stormed out of the room. Hermione gave Ron a sympathetic grimace, Mrs. Weasley could be a little… reactive sometimes. But Hermione didn't blame her, as she was just trying to hold her family together anyway she could during these worrying times.

"Blimey... you can't even make a joke round here anymore..."

* * *

A teenage boy with a pale, pointed face and white-blond hair appeared from behind the rack, wearing a handsome set of dark green robes that glittered with pins around the hem and the edges of the sleeves. He strode to the mirror and examined himself; it was a few moments before he noticed Hermione, Ron, and Harry reflected over his shoulder. His light gray eyes narrowed.

"Oh, Hermione," Draco smiled somewhat shiftily, "Mother, it's Hermione. Princess, I see you have your less than stellar entourage with you today."

Narcissa Malfoy strolled out from behind the clothes rack.

"Princess, how lovely to see you again. It has been too long." Narcissa smiled, coldly calculating, "I'm glad for your letters at the least, although we would love to see you for tea at the Manor once in a while." Narcissa completely ignored Harry and Ron, who were looking at Hermione as if she had grown another head. She guessed they didn't expect her to be so chummy with the Malfoy matriarch.

"School has kept me quite busy. Along with extracurriculars, I was studying for the eleven O.W.L.s I had coming up. Which, you may be interested to know, I got top marks on all eleven. I wish Draco had been in all my classes, as I am sure he would have kept me intelligently occupied."

"Too kind, I'm sure." Narcissa smiled more warmly, "Draco, did you hear Hermione? I told you that you could aspire to more than only 10 O.W.L.s. But, of course, he has no love for Divination, and Muggle Studies are completely out of the question."

Hermione sniggered, "Quite, I can't imagine what use a Malfoy would have for Muggle Studies."

"I got 2 Os, 5 Es, and 3 As. All passing. But, of course, now that we know your score… Well, I can bet I will be pushed to do much better on my N.E.W.T.s."

Harry and Ron had left ages ago to get fitted for robes.

Hermione smirked, "And whose fault is that Draco?" She winked at him.

"His fault, of course." Narcissa sniffed delicately, "I expect much better from him. He is my own son and heir to the Malfoy name."

"Mum," Draco whined, "Not in front of Hermione."

Draco blushed slightly while looking her over again. He had become quite the good looking boy. He resembled his mother more so than his father. He had a sort of effeminate, classic beauty to his face. His bone structure was much more defined now than before. He was on the precipice of being a man. His blond hair was kept loosely hanging in front of his face in a sharp cut. But she could still see him as the boy she'd first met in Ollivander's on that fateful day, six calendar years ago.

There was yet another element to his countenance than there was before the summer break. He looked slightly worried about something greater than himself. It was an odd look for him. She knew him as a generally self-interested sort of person.

"How's it going with Daphne?" She asked.

"Not well. She accused me of liking her sister more so than her." Draco rolled his eyes. "Her sister is fourteen. There is hardly anything to like about her yet."

Hermione shrugged, "It's not so far off in age. Just maybe, Daphne could see something you haven't yet seen yourself."

"I can't stand Astoria. She barely talks, and when she does, it's to chime in and agree with whatever her sister is saying. She's no more interesting than Pansy. Her only redeeming quality is that her family lineage is among the purest in Britain."

"We must be going now, Draco. It was lovely to see you again, Princess Hermione. Keep in close touch."

Hermione waved them off; she was worried about what their situation must mean. If Draco was in trouble, she would have to find out what sort of trouble it was. She did not think it could be good. With the Dark Lord knowing the full prophecy, who knew how he would utilize the Malfoy's connection to her.

* * *

Hermione had managed to squeeze through to a large display near the counter, and was reading the information on the back of a box bearing a highly colored picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship.

"'One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable (side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling). Not for sale to under-sixteens. You know," said Hermione, looking up at Harry, "that really is extraordinary magic!"

"For that, Hermione," said a voice behind them, "you can have one for free."

A beaming Fred stood before them, wearing a set of magenta robes that clashed magnificently with his flaming hair.

"How are you, Harry?" They shook hands. "And what's happened to your eye, Hermione?"

"Your punching telescope," she said ruefully.

"Oh blimey, I forgot about those," said Fred. "Here —"

He pulled a tub out of his pocket and handed it to her; she unscrewed it gingerly to reveal a thick yellow paste.

"Just dab it on, that bruise'll be gone within the hour," said Fred. "We had to find a decent bruise remover. We're testing most of our products on ourselves."

Hermione looked nervous. "It is safe, isn't it?" she asked.

'"Course it is," said Fred bracingly. "Come on, Harry, I'll give you a tour."

Harry left Hermione dabbing her black eye with paste, and followed Fred toward the back of the shop.

Hermione browsed the store for a bit more, until Fred and Harry got back from behind the super secret backroom.

"Haven't you girls found our special WonderWitch products yet?" asked Fred. "Follow me, ladies..."

Near the window was an array of violently pink products, around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary.

"There you go," said Fred proudly. "Best range of love potions you'll find anywhere."

Ginny raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Do they work?" she asked.

"Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question —"

"— and the attractiveness of the girl," said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. "But we're not selling them to our sister," he added, becoming suddenly stern, "not when she's already got about five boys on the go from what we've —"

"Whatever you've heard from Ron is a big fat lie," said Ginny calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf. "What's this?"

"Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher," said Fred. "Excellent on everything from boils to blackheads, but don't change the subject. Are you or are you not currently going out with a boy called Dean Thomas?"

"Yes, I am," said Ginny. "And last time I looked, he was definitely one boy, not five. What are those?"

She was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, all rolling around the bottom of a cage and emitting high-pitched squeaks.

"Pygmy Puffs," said George. "Miniature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. So what about Michael Corner?"

"I dumped him, he was a bad loser," said Ginny, putting a finger through the bars of the cage and watching the Pygmy Puffs crowd around it. "They're really cute!"

"They're fairly cuddly, yes," conceded Fred. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?"

Ginny turned to look at him, her hands on her hips. There was such a Mrs. Weasley-ish glare on her face that Hermione was surprised Fred didn't recoil.

"It's none of your business. And I'll thank you'' she added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George's elbow, laden with merchandise, "not to tell tales about me to these two!"

"That's three Galleons, nine Sickles, and a Knut," said Fred, examining the many boxes in Ron's arms. "Cough up."

"I'm your brother!"

"And that's our stuff you're nicking. Three Galleons, nine Sickles. I'll knock off the Knut."

"But I haven't got three Galleons, nine Sickles!"

"You'd better put it back then, and mind you put it on the right shelves."

Ron dropped several boxes, swore, and made a rude hand gesture at Fred that was spotted by Mrs. Weasley, who had chosen that moment to appear.

"If I see you do that again, I'll jinx your fingers together," she said sharply.

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" said Ginny at once.

"A what?" said Mrs. Weasley warily.

"Look, they're so sweet..."

Mrs. Weasley moved aside to look at the Pygmy Puffs, and Hermione, Ron, and Harry momentarily had an unimpeded view out of the window. Draco Malfoy was hurrying up the street alone. As he passed Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, he glanced over his shoulder. Seconds later, he moved beyond the scope of the window and they lost sight of him.

"Wonder where his mummy is?" said Harry, frowning.

"Given her the slip by the looks of it," said Ron.

"Why, though?" said Hermione.

She noticed Harry go quiet, with a look on his face that suggested he suspected Draco was up to no good.

She watched him glance around. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were bending over the Pygmy Puffs. Bill was delightedly examining a pack of Muggle marked playing cards. Fred and George were both helping customers. On the other side of the glass, Hagrid was standing with his back to them, looking up and down the street.

"Get under here, quick," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag.

"Oh — I don't know, Harry," said Hermione, looking uncertainly toward Mrs. Weasley.

"Come on." said Ron.

She hesitated for a second longer, then ducked under the cloak with Harry and Ron. Nobody noticed them vanish; they were all too interested in Fred and George's products. Harry, Ron, and Hermione squeezed their way out of the door as quickly as they could, but by the time they gained the street, Draco had disappeared just as successfully as they had.

"He was going in that direction," murmured Harry as quietly as possible, so that the humming Hagrid would not hear them. "Cmon."

They scurried along, peering left and right, through shop windows and doors, until Hermione pointed ahead.

"That's him, isn't it?" she whispered. "Turning left?"

"Big surprise," whispered Ron.

For Malfoy had glanced around, then slid into Knockturn Alley and out of sight.

"Quick, or we'll lose him," said Harry, speeding up.

"Our feet'll be seen!" said Hermione anxiously, as the cloak flapped a little around their ankles; it was much more difficult hiding all three of them under the cloak nowadays. The last time had been in first year.

"It doesn't matter," said Harry impatiently. "Just hurry!"

But Knockturn Alley, the side street devoted to the Dark Arts, looked completely deserted. They peered into windows as they passed, but none of the shops seemed to have any customers at all. Hermione supposed it was a bit of a giveaway in these dangerous and suspicious times to buy Dark artifacts — or at least, to be seen buying them.

Hermione gave Harry's arm a hard pinch.

"Ouch!"

"Shh! Look! He's in there!" she breathed in Harry's ear.

They had drawn level with Borgin and Burkes, which sold a wide variety of sinister objects. There in the midst of the cases full of skulls and old bottles stood Draco Malfoy with his back to them, just visible beyond a large black cabinet. Judging by the movements of Draco's hands, he was talking animatedly. The proprietor of the shop, Mr. Borgin, an oily-haired, stooping man, stood facing Draco. He was wearing a curious expression of mingled resentment and fear.

"If only we could hear what they're saying!" said Hermione.

"We can!" said Ron excitedly. "Hang on — damn —"

He dropped a couple more of the boxes he was still clutching as he fumbled with the largest.

"Extendable Ears, look!"

"Fantastic!" said Hermione, as Ron unraveled the long, flesh-colored strings and began to feed them toward the bottom of the door. "Oh, I hope the door isn't Imperturbable —"

"No!" said Ron gleefully. "Listen!"

They put their heads together and listened intently to the ends of the strings, through which Malfoy's voice could be heard loud and clear, as though a radio had been turned on.

". . . you know how to fix it?"

"Possibly," said Borgin, in a tone that suggested he was unwilling to commit himself. "I'll need to see it, though. Why don't you bring it into the shop?"

"I can't," said Malfoy. "It's got to stay put. I just need you to tell me how to do it."

Hermione saw Borgin lick his lips nervously.

"Well, without seeing it, I must say it will be a very difficult job, perhaps impossible. I couldn't guarantee anything."

"No?" said Draco, and Hermione knew, just by his tone, that he was sneering. "Perhaps this will make you more confident."

He moved toward Borgin and was blocked from view by the cabinet. Hermione, Ron, and Harry shuffled sideways to try and keep him in sight, but all they could see was Borgin, looking very frightened.

"Tell anyone," said Draco, "and there will be retribution. You know Fenrir Greyback? He's a family friend. He'll be dropping in from time to time, to make sure you're giving the problem your full attention."

"There will be no need for —"

"I'll decide that," said Draco. "Well, I'd better be off. And don't forget to keep that one safe, I'll need it."

"Perhaps you'd like to take it now?"

"No, of course I wouldn't, you stupid, little man, how would I look carrying that down the street? Just don't sell it."

"Of course not. . . sir."

Borgin made a bow as deep as the one Harry had once seen him give Lucius Malfoy. Not that Hermione knew that, at the time. To be sure, Harry went on and on about it at length, once they returned to the Burrow.

"Not a word to anyone, Borgin, and that includes my mother, understand?"

"Naturally, naturally," murmured Borgin, bowing again.

Next moment, the bell over the door tinkled loudly as Draco stalked out of the shop looking very pleased with himself. He passed so close to Hermione, Ron, and Harry that they felt the cloak flutter around their knees again. Inside the shop, Borgin remained frozen; his unctuous smile had vanished; he looked worried.

"What was that about?" whispered Ron, reeling in the Extendable Ears.

"Dunno," said Harry, looking like he was thinking hard. "He wants something mended... and he wants to reserve something in there… Could you see what he pointed at when he said 'that one'?"

"No, he was behind that cabinet —"

"You two stay here," whispered Hermione.

"What are you — ?"

But Hermione had already ducked out from under the cloak. She checked her hair in the reflection in the glass, then marched into the shop, setting the bell tinkling again.

"Hello, horrible morning, isn't it?" Hermione said brightly to Borgin, who did not answer, but cast her a suspicious look. Humming cheerily, Hermione strolled through the jumble of objects on display.

"Is this necklace for sale?" she asked, pausing beside a glass-fronted case.

"If you've got one and a half thousand Galleons," said Mr. Borgin coldly.

"Oh — er — no, I haven't got quite that much," said Hermione, walking on. "And… what about this lovely — um — skull?"

"Sixteen Galleons."

"So it's for sale, then? It isn't being . . . kept for anyone?"

Mr. Borgin squinted at her. Hermione had the nasty feeling he knew exactly what she was up to. Hermione felt she had been rumbled, so she suddenly threw caution to the winds.

"The thing is, that — er — boy who was in here just now, Draco Malfoy, well, he's a friend of mine, and I want to get him a birthday present, but if he's already reserved anything, I obviously don't want to get him the same thing, so... um..."

It was a pretty lame story, but it was the best she could come up with on the spot, and apparently Borgin thought so too.

"Out," he said sharply. "Get out!"

Hermione did not wait to be asked twice, but hurried to the door with Borgin at her heels. As the bell tinkled again, Borgin slammed the door behind her and put up the closed sign.

"Ah well," said Ron, throwing the cloak back over Hermione. "Worth a try, but you were a bit obvious —"

"Well, next time you can show me how it's done, Master of Mystery!" she snapped.

Hermione bickered with Ron all the way back to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, where they were forced to stop so that they could dodge undetected around a very anxious-looking Mrs. Weasley and Hagrid, who had clearly noticed their absence. Once in the shop, Harry whipped the Invisibility Cloak off of them, hid it in his bag, and joined in with her and Ron when they insisted, in answer to Mrs. Weasley's accusations, that they had been in the back room all along, and that Mrs. Weasley could not have looked properly.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

**The Royal Textbook**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**"I will show you a love potion without drug or herb, or any witch's spell; if you wish to be loved, love."**

**- Charles Lindberg**

* * *

Draco knew this year was to be very important for his family. He was in the thick of it now, there was no question about that. His father had narrowly escaped being caught at the Ministry raid last year. As a result, his father had to present Draco as a replacement to him, should anything go wrong. So, it had all started innocently enough. 'Take the Dark Mark to follow in your father's footsteps', they had said. Then, it was find a way for the Death Eaters to stealthily enter Hogwarts or face the consequences. The consequences being a horrible, painful death for someone he loved. The Dark Lord was slipping away, mentally speaking. Draco wasn't quite sure what would happen to his parents, as they hosted the snake-faced one in their own home. Draco was only glad to be free of him, physically at least, as he would be going back to Hogwarts. He was on the train, contemplating his plans for this year.

At the very least, he would not be required to kill the old codger. Draco had no particular love for Albus Dumbledore, who was quite obviously partial to Gryffindors over Slytherins, but he would not want to kill him or anyone. No, he was just supposed to get the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, and who knew what would happen then. Who would be killed.

He was incredibly worried that the Dark Lord was planning something horrible for Hermione. Uncle Severus and his father both told him that Hermione would not be harmed so long as Voldemort thought he could convert her. That's what made Draco the most nervous; he was absolutely certain that Hermione would never join the Dark Lord. Not while the madman was killing muggles left and right. She wasn't aunt Bella, she couldn't be seduced to the Dark Side with promises of power. Hermione was already powerful in her own right.

Draco felt true fear when he thought of her being killed or tortured… or worse. With the way the Dark Lord talked about her… it seemed almost sensual. Predatory.

Could his going through with this plan lead to something unspeakable happening to her? If it did, he would never be able to feel happy again. He would hate himself too much. But if he didn't do this... he knew he couldn't live with those consequences either.

Pansy was looking strangely circumspect as well, she kept her nose turned to the window as the scenery past by in a blur. She had grown almost tolerable to be around now that she kept her mitts off of him. Draco wondered if she was thinking of her mystery suitor. No one knew who he was, and most had given up Blaise's claim as a lie. Draco knew something was off about her lately. He would bet his broom on it being about a boy. Pansy had never been a particularly complicated girl.

"So, Zabini," Draco spoke at last, "what did Slughorn want?"

"Just trying to make up to well-connected people," said Zabini, who was still glowering at Goyle, after the big lump had accidentally fallen in his lap moments ago. "Not that he managed to find many."

This information did not please Draco. "Who else had he invited?" he demanded.

"McLaggen from Gryffindor," said Zabini.

"Oh yeah, his uncle's big in the Ministry," said Draco.

"Someone else called Belby, from Ravenclaw."

"Not him, he's a prat!" said Pansy.

"And Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley girl," finished Zabini.

Draco's ears perked up at that.

"He invited Longbottom?"

"Well, I assume so, as Longbottom was there," said Zabini indifferently.

"What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?"

Zabini shrugged.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One,'" sneered Draco, absolutely tired of all the favouritism shown that dingus. "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?"

"A lot of boys like her," said Pansy, watching Draco out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!"

"I wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor like her, whatever she looked like," said Zabini coldly, and Pansy looked pleased. Draco hoped she wasn't planning to get together with Blaise again. He couldn't go through that again, Slytherin common room had been hell for months after their break up. And it wasn't exactly heaven when they were still together.

"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or -"

"I wouldn't bank on an invitation," said Zabini. "He asked me about Nott's father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters."

Draco forced out a singularly humorless laugh. "They couldn't prove my dad was even there. It's all under suspicion more than anything."

They looked at him like he was delusional. Well, except for Crabbe, who was still reading his comics, and Goyle, who was staring at some point in the room with a confused looking expression.

"Well, who cares what he's interested in? What is he, when you come down to it? Just some stupid teacher." Draco yawned ostentatiously. "I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"

"What do you mean, you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" said Pansy indignantly.

"Well, you never know," said Draco with the ghost of a smirk. "I might have moved on to bigger and better things."

His insides were twisting by playing this little game that he'd always played. The superior act was all well and good when it meant little schoolyard fights, but now… Draco had no taste for it.

Crabbe and Goyle were gawping at him; apparently they had had no inkling of any plans to move on to bigger and better things. Even Zabini had allowed a look of curiosity to mar his haughty features. Pansy resumed her inspection of the trees beyond the window, looking thrown by the news.

It made sense for Pansy and Blaise, they weren't really children of Death Eaters. Pansy's father was somewhat supportive, but hadn't been asked to pledge. Blaise's mum probably scared the tits off the Dark Lord. He figured the Dark Lord didn't want to be her next late husband.

"Do you mean —" Pansy began.

Draco shrugged.

"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see it as that important these days. I mean, think about it. ... When the Dark Lord takes over, is he going to care how many O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.S anyone's got? Of course he isn't. It'll be all about the kind of service he received, the level of devotion he was shown."

"And you think you'll be able to do something for him?" asked Blaise scathingly. "Sixteen years old and not even fully qualified yet?"

"I've just said, haven't I? Maybe he doesn't care if I'm qualified. Maybe the job he wants me to do isn't something that you need to be qualified for," Draco said quietly.

Crabbe and Goyle were both sitting with their mouths open like gargoyles. Pansy was gazing at him as though she had never seen anything so awe-inspiring. Oh no, not that again. 'Take Blaise, not me, you bloody harpy!'

"I can see Hogwarts," Draco spoke, appearing to relish the effect he had created as he pointed out of the blackened window. "We'd better get our robes on."

Draco was sure he heard something unusual as Goyle reached up for his trunk. He proceeded to pretend he thought he had imagined it, as he continued getting ready for leaving the train. It was a hard job, when he could still hear someone else breathing heavily on top of the luggage rack. He let everyone pass ahead of him, and out of the compartment.

"You go on," Draco told Pansy, who was waiting for him with her hand held out as though hoping he would hold it. "I just want to check something."

They left, and it was he alone with whoever was hiding in here with him. Draco moved over to the compartment door and let down the blinds, so that people in the corridor beyond could not peer in. He then bent down over his trunk and opened it again.

He heard shuffling up above him; whoever it was had taken the bait.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Without warning, Draco pointed his wand at the luggage rack where he thought the person was. That person was instantly paralyzed. As though in slow motion, the person toppled out of the luggage rack and fell, with an agonizing, floor-shaking crash, at Draco's feet; the Invisibility Cloak trapped beneath him, his whole body revealed with his legs still curled absurdly into the cramped kneeling position. The inept spy couldn't move a muscle; he could only gaze up at Draco, who smiled broadly.

"I thought so," he said jubilantly. "I heard Goyle's trunk hit you. And I thought I saw something white flash through the air after Zabini came back..."

His eyes lingered for a moment upon Potter's trainers.

"You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while I've got you here..."

Draco broke Potter's nose in one swift stamp down on his stupid frozen face.

"That's for being too curious for your own good." Draco spoke, absent of any feeling in his voice, "This year, you'll want to look out for your friends. Fair warning, lines are being drawn… and I can't be seen to be favorable to you. Not that I really wanted to, let's be honest. I think you are terribly dull. I only tolerated you for Hermione's sake. For her... you have no idea what I'd do for her, do you? In any case, try to stay out of it will you? Not that you'll listen."

Draco dragged the cloak out from under Potter's immobilized body, and threw it over him.

"I don't reckon they'll find you till the train's back in London," he said quietly. "See you around, Potter... or not."

And, taking care to tread on Potter's fingers, Draco left the compartment. He felt in a better mood already.

* * *

Severus picked up the Patronus message that Potter had been found, and was being escorted to the gate. He decided to meet them himself as anyone else would probably mollycoddle the miscreant boy. Nymphadora was standing beside a bloody Harry Potter, who looked ashamed to be seen by him in the state he was in.

"Well, well, well," sneered Snape, taking out his wand and tapping the padlock once, so that the chains snaked backward and the gates creaked open. "Nice of you to turn up, Potter, although you have evidently decided that the wearing of school robes would detract from your appearance."

"I couldn't change, I didn't have my —" Potter began, but Severus cut him off.

"There is no need to wait, Nymphadora, Potter is quite — ah — safe in my hands."

"I meant Hagrid to get the message," said Tonks, frowning.

"Hagrid was late for the start-of-term feast, just like Potter here, so I took it instead. And incidentally," said Severus, standing back to allow Potter to pass him, "I was interested to see your new Patronus."

He shut the gates in her face with a loud clang and tapped the chains with his wand again, so that they slithered, clinking back into place.

"I think you were better off with the old one," Severus spoke bluntly, even knowing the new one was because of her new relationship status with Remus Lupin. Perhaps, because of it. "The new one looks weak."

The fact that two Marauders still lived was a great disappointment to him. Especially those two. James may have been the ringleader, but Sirius was the vicious one. And Remus, he didn't care who they hurt so long as he had friends. And he acted so pious. Giving the minimal amount of protestations so that he seemed to be the level head.

He let Potter stew for a few minutes as he stalked up the path to the front doors of Hogwarts.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for lateness, I think," Severus spoke smoothly. "And, let me see, another twenty for your Muggle attire. You know, I don't believe any House has ever been in negative figures this early in the term: We haven't even started pudding. You might have set a record, Potter."

Potter said nothing, Severus imagined he could hear the boy grinding his teeth.

"I suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you?" Severus continued. "And with no flying car available, you decided that bursting into the Great Hall halfway through the feast ought to create a dramatic effect."

They reached the castle steps at last and, as the great oaken front doors swung open into the vast flagged entrance hall, a burst of talk and laughter and of tinkling plates and glasses greeted them through the doors standing open into the Great Hall. Severus saw Potter contemplating fading into the walls, thereby gaining his seat at the long Gryffindor table without being noticed. He didn't need to read Potter's mind to figure that much out so Severus said, "No cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I'm sure."

Potter began to walk off before he spoke, "Wait for a moment, Potter."

The boy turned around to look at him with hate in his eyes, green with fury. So much like Lily's, they didn't pain him as much as before to look at. 'Tergeo!' he thought as he flicked his wand at the boy's bloody face, the blood was siphoned off his face. "Perhaps, you would do well to remember not everyone finds your hijinks to be endearing. Particularly, whoever did that to your face. I would suggest keeping your head down, being smart for once, instead of rash. You may rejoin your classmates."

Severus stalked past him, keeping his eyes resolutely ahead to the Head Table. Hermione was sitting with her first and second years, at the neutral table. It was more crowded than last year. She was already passing out schedules, they had prepared them ahead of time. She smiled softly as she talked to the younger kids, and his heart skipped a beat. She was in her element, somehow, with being a friendly face for the children. He felt like a polar opposite to her. She was everything he was not. They shared a formidable intellect. She beat him in O.W.L.s, but he had been denied a time turner to take extra classes. Even then, Dumbledore hadn't trusted him. The skinny boy with a constantly dour face, who was friends with the bright and sunny of disposition Gryffindor girl… He only wished that he had never chosen the Death Eaters over her friendship.

* * *

Hermione was denied access to a time turner this year, as she was not taking multiple classes at once. Hermione was set to go to Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Potions for N.E.W.T. level classes. She had dropped Muggle Studies, even though she had enjoyed the class. She knew Hagrid was disappointed that neither Harry, Ron, or her had gone on to N.E.W.T.'s level classes.

Today was already the first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts, taught by Professor Snape. She wondered how his classroom teaching would differ from his private lessons. Hermione was already queuing outside, carrying an armful of heavy books and probably looking put-upon.

"We got so much homework for Runes," she said anxiously when Harry and Ron joined her. "A fifteen-inch essay, two translations, and I've got to read these by Wednesday!"

"Shame," yawned Ron.

"You wait," she said resentfully. "I bet Professor Snape gives us loads."

The classroom door opened as she spoke, and Professor Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of lank black hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.

"Inside," he said.

Professor Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.

"I have not asked you to take out your books," said Professor Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Hermione hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair. "I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention."

His black eyes roved over their upturned faces, lingering for a fraction of a second longer on Harry's than anyone else's. He had ghosted over her face as if she wasn't there.

"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe."

Hermione coughed slightly as she had almost been about to snigger at the five so-called teachers they had had previously. Quirrell, evil with Voldemort on the back of his head. Lockhart, shoe polish was more intelligent than he. Remus, great teacher except for all his time absent due to his affliction. Moody-Crouch, a madman in the disguise of a paranoid man. Umbridge, sadomasochistic broad with delusions of grandeur. Only one good teacher in the whole bag.

"Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an acceptable in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be more advanced."

That was reasonable, not all of them could pass. That would be very rare indeed.

Severus Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view. The Dark Arts," said Professor Snape, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."

Hermione shivered, she knew how he felt about the Dark Arts intuitively from her own studies. They were Dark, certainly, but they had vast untapped power as well. And, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

"Your defenses," said Snape, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures" - he indicated a few of them as he swept past - "give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse" - he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony - "feel the Dementor's Kiss" - a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall - "or provoke the aggression of the Inferius" - a bloody mass upon ground.

"Has an Inferius been seen, then?" said Parvati Patil in a high pitched voice. "Is it definite, is he using them?"

"The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past," said Professor Snape, "which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now..."

He set off again around the other side of the classroom toward his desk, and again, they watched him as he walked, his dark robes billowing behind him.

". . . you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?"

Hermione's hand went into the air slowly, but deliberately. Professor Snape took his time looking around at everybody else, making sure he had no choice, before saying curtly, "Very well - Miss Granger?"

"You can catch your enemies quite off guard. As you did in your duel that we saw in first year, sir. They won't be able to read your lips and will have to guess what spell you might be performing based on stance and wand movement." Hermione said whilst not breaking eye contact with him.

"Yes, those who progress in using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power, which some" - his gaze lingered maliciously upon Harry once more - "lack."

Hermione thought that unfair, as Harry had managed to become disciplined enough for a basic level of Occlumency. But, of course, he had a show to put on even now.

"You will now divide," Professor Snape went on, "into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on."

Hermione partnered with Draco, still a little mad that he had stomped Harry's face. What was going on with him this year? She felt as if every year, she had to handle some Draco-related silliness.

Hermione knew how to do a silent Shield Charm already, so it wasn't very fair to Draco. But neither was what he had done to Harry. She blocked each one, and pointed the shield so that it rebounded and hit Draco in the face, every time. By ten minutes of such treatment he wanted to switch places. A stinging hex to the face for ten minutes would do that to you.

She graciously accepted the switch after being acknowledged by Professor Snape and allowed to do so. He hadn't given her points for her shielding, but she hadn't expected it.

"Attempt to shield yourself, Draco."

She used one of Severus' milder hexes that was still quite a bit more powerful than the ones most students knew. He dodged, knowing he couldn't shield her silently. She laughed. Professor Snape looked at her reprovingly; oh right, she was supposed to be silent.

She tried a spell she could do silently, he was lifted off the floor by his ankles. His tie hit him square in the face. It was a juvenile spell, but she found it easy to do. She let him down. Then she mimicked like she was going to do a harder spell, but didn't think the incantation. He dodged out of the way of nothing and set off her trap card. She twisted the wand in a simple shape and thought her jinx silently. He began laughing uncontrollably. She released the spell before Professor Snape could disapprove. More such embarrassments continued until Draco asked for a new partner, as it was clear this one had an advantage over him a mile wide.

"Weasley, switch places with Malfoy." Professor Snape spoke, as he sneered at Ron struggling to perform a simple silent spell.

Hermione faced off against Ron, and spoke quietly while Professor Snape was taunting Harry loudly across the room. "You don't have to hold your breath, you know. Visualize it in your mind, feel it, and let it go."

Ron looked at her with confusion; he was probably wondering where she had learned all of this.

She took a deep breath and cast stinging hexes at his feet silently, not quite wanting to hurt Ron.

It was of no matter, as no one else in the class had managed it by the time class was let out.

"What's Dumbledore playing at, anyway, letting him teach Defense? Did you hear him talking about the Dark Arts? He loves them! All that unfixed, indestructible stuff."

"Well," said Hermione, "I thought he sounded a bit like you."

"Like me?"

"Yes, when you were telling us what it's like to face Voldemort. You said it wasn't just memorizing a bunch of spells, you said it was just you and your brains and your guts - well, wasn't that what Professor Snape was saying? That it really comes down to being brave and quick-thinking?"

Harry didn't say anything to that, and she knew that she had scored a point with him about Professor Snape.

* * *

The great thing about N.E.W.T. level classes was that now she had the same class order every week. Slughorn's class would be different than Professor Snape's, much different she suspected, since Severus had written quite a bit in his journals about what he would do differently to Slughorn. So she was somewhat forewarned to his particular style of teaching.

When they arrived in the corridor, they saw that there were only a dozen people progressing to N.E.W.T. level. Crabbe and Goyle had evidently failed to achieve the required O.W.L. grade, but four Slytherins had made it through, including Draco. Four Ravenclaws were there, and one Hufflepuff, Ernie Macmillan, whom Hermione liked despite his rather pompous manner.

"Harry," Ernie said portentously, holding out his hand to Harry, as he approached, "didn't get a chance to speak in Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning. Good lesson, I thought, but Shield Charms are old hat, of course, for us old D.A. lags... And how are you, Ron - Hermione?"

Before they could say more than "fine," the dungeon door opened and Slughorn's belly preceded him out of the door. As they filed into the room, his great walrus mustache curved above his beaming mouth, and he greeted Harry, Zabini, and Hermione with particular enthusiasm.

The dungeon was, most unusually, already full of vapors and odd smells. Hermione, Ron, and Harry sniffed interestedly as they passed large, bubbling cauldrons. The four Slytherins took a table together, as did the four Ravenclaws. This left Hermione, Ron, and Harry to share a table with Ernie. They chose the one nearest a gold-colored cauldron that was emitting one of the most seductive scents Hermione had ever inhaled: Somehow it reminded her simultaneously of old books, ozone from a stormy day, and the flame of a candle. She found that she was breathing very slowly and deeply, and that the potion's fumes seemed to be filling her up like drink. A great contentment stole over her; she grinned across at Harry, who grinned back lazily.

"Now then, now then, now then," said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making..."

"Sir?" said Harry, raising his hand.

"Harry, m'boy?"

"I haven't got a book or scales or anything - nor's Ron - we didn't realize we'd be able to do the N.E.W.T., you see -"

"Ah, yes, Professor McGonagall did mention… not to worry, my dear boy, not to worry at all. You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I'm sure we can lend you some scales, and we've got a small stock of old books here, they'll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts..."

Slughorn strode over to a corner cupboard and, after a moment's foraging, emerged with two very battered-looking copies of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, which he gave to Harry and Ron along with two sets of tarnished scales.

"Now then," said Slughorn, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of things you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Can anyone tell me what this one is?"

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table. Hermione raised herself slightly in her seat and saw what looked like plain water boiling away inside it. To the untrained eye.

Hermione's well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else's; Slughorn pointed to her.

"It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth," said Hermione.

"Very good, very good!" said Slughorn happily. "Now," he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, "this one here is pretty well known... Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too... Who can - ?"

Hermione's hand was fastest once more.

"lt's Polyjuice Potion, sir," she said.

"Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here... yes, my dear?" said Slughorn, now looking slightly bemused, as her hand punched the air again.

"It's Amortentia!"

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"

"It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" said Hermione.

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Hermione enthusiastically, "and it's supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us."

She left out what she could still smell, wisely, but she blushed anyway.

"Well, well, take twenty well-earned points for Hogwarts, Miss Granger," said Slughorn genially. "It's good to see Royalty these days that don't rest on their laurels. Oh the stories I could tell…"

"Thank you, sir." She replied with a smile.

"Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room - oh yes," he said, nodding gravely at Draco and Theo Nott, both of whom were smirking skeptically. "When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love."

"And now," said Slughorn, "it is time for us to start work."

"Sir, you haven't told us what's in this one," said Ernie Macmillan, pointing at a small black cauldron standing on Slughorn's desk. The potion within was splashing about merrily; it was the color of molten gold, and large drops were leaping like goldfish above the surface, though not a particle had spilled.

"Oho," said Slughorn again. Hermione was sure that Slughorn had not forgotten the potion at all, but had waited to be asked for dramatic effect. "Yes. That. Well, that one, ladies and gentlemen, is a most curious little potion called Felix Felicis. I take it," he turned, smiling, to look at Hermione, who had let out an audible gasp, "that you know what Felix Felicis does, Miss Granger?"

"It's liquid luck," said Hermione excitedly. "It makes you lucky!"

The whole class seemed to sit up a little, Draco was at last giving Slughorn his full and undivided attention. All she could see of him was the back of his silvery-blond head.

"Quite right, take another ten points for Hogwarts. Yes, it's a funny little potion, Felix Felicis," said Slughorn. "Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly, as this has been, you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed... at least until the effects wear off."

"Why don't people drink it all the time, sir?" said Terry Boot eagerly.

"Because if taken in excess, it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence," said Slughorn. "Too much of a good thing, you know... highly toxic in large quantities. But taken sparingly, and very occasionally..."

"Have you ever taken it, sir?" asked Michael Corner with great interest.

"Twice in my life," said Slughorn. "Once when I was twenty-four, once when I was fifty-seven. Two tablespoonfuls taken with breakfast. Two perfect days."

He gazed dreamily into the distance. Whether he was playacting or not, thought Hermione, the effect was good.

"And that," said Slughorn, apparently coming back to earth, "is what I shall be offering as a prize in this lesson."

There was silence, in which every bubble and gurgle of the surrounding potions seemed magnified tenfold.

"One tiny bottle of Felix Felicis," said Slughorn, taking a minuscule glass bottle with a cork in it out of his pocket and showing it to them all. "Enough for twelve hours' luck. From dawn till dusk, you will be lucky in everything you attempt."

"Now, I must give you warning that Felix Felicis is a banned substance in organized competitions… sporting events, for instance, examinations, or elections. So the winner is to use it on an ordinary day only… and watch how that ordinary day becomes extraordinary!"

"So," said Slughorn, suddenly brisk, "how are you to win this fabulous prize? Well, by turning to page ten of Advanced Potion Making. We have a little over an hour left to us, which should be time for you to make a decent attempt at the Draught of Living Death. I know it is more complex than anything you have attempted before, and I do not expect a perfect potion from anybody. The person who does best, however, will win little Felix here. Off you go!"

By the end of class, she quite suspected that she knew whose old textbook Harry had inherited. She kept this information to herself for the time being. Anything that made Harry pay attention in potions was a good thing in her opinion. And because she knew almost immediately who that handwriting belonged to, she followed its directions surreptitiously under the guise of reaching for things across the table.

As a result, Harry and Hermione's potions were exactly perfect. As they had tied for the win, they both got one vial of the Felix Felicis each.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

**The Royal Grubs**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******Did you know that the English ****_Witchcraft Act_**** of 1736 condemned any person pretending to exercise witchcraft to a year of imprisonment with an hour of pillory every quarter, but prevented prosecution against any person who was exercising witchcraft for real?**

* * *

Hermione brought up the issue of Harry Potter's new old potions book formerly belonging to "the Half-blood Prince" at her next Dark Arts private lesson. Naturally, Severus looked concerned. "I do not think it wise that he continue using that book. I had some… interesting ideas during that year. With not a lot of morals. I suggest you find some way for it to conveniently disappear."

"That should not be too hard." Hermione spoke confidently. "He carries it everywhere. I'll arrange for him to drop it outside your class, next time we see you, and you can spirit it away while he's fumbling around, trying to pick up all his things. He'll probably suspect anyone else but you of doing it, so long as he doesn't see you."

"I wanted to compliment you on your progress, Hermione." Severus purred, "The way you handled Draco in your last lesson was superb. The boy kept whispering under his breath. He thought I wouldn't notice. But I did."

She blushed, "I thought if you slightly altered the last sequence of movements with your wand, that you could aim the shield. It turned out to be a lucky break."

"Yes, I have also experimented with aimed strikes in my own spell creations. That is one of the spells in the book that Harry Potter should most certainly not have access to… he won't know the counterspell. And it's quite deadly if left alone," Severus spoke darkly serious. "So, it would be a shame if he used it unknowingly on a fellow student, in one of his rash duels."

Hermione leaned forward, interest piqued. "Might I learn it?"

He leaned back, sly grin firmly in place.

She waited breathlessly for him to say something. He could certainly keep a girl in suspense.

"That may be… arranged."

She smiled and said excitedly, "Yes, whatever it takes."

"Show me something new. Something that will be worth the trouble." He said, lacing his fingers.

She began to show him the way she had altered the Shield Charm. But he shook his head. So, new new then, not just an alteration. "You want me to come up with my own spell?"

"I did in your year, and I was a year or so younger than you are now while I was in sixth year." He smirked, self-satisfied at his own brilliance.

She frowned. She would have to think about it.

"Take your time thinking about it. I expect it will be quite a bit more interesting if you give it your utmost attention."

* * *

Albus held the ring up to the floating light he had conjured. Harry set across from him for his private lesson. It was dormant of any evil magics now, he had made sure of that. The original plan had been to put it on, to put himself under his own sword of Damocles this year. He had foreseen a need for his spy to prove himself finally to Voldemort. But that had all changed, they would need his guidance now that everything was shifting beneath him like sand through a time turner. He had no time at all to make himself a martyr, he would need to have a careful eye on the irons he had put in the fire.

"But isn't it... sir, isn't it the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?"

Dumbledore bowed his head. "The very same."

"But how come — ? Have you always had it?"

"I picked this up much later, from the ruins of that house you just saw, Harry. Tom never knew about, or didn't care, that the stone inside the ring was the famed Resurrection Stone. I destroyed the ring, hence why it is broken and twisted beyond repair, so that the Horcrux would be destroyed as well. I have kept the stone safe and secure so that I would not even wish to use it. It's a terrible temptation, Harry. It has driven men to despair so strong that they killed themselves just to be with their departed loved ones."

"If - if I have all three… You could kill me now and I would come back, right? I could be free of him in my mind?" Harry looked lost. Albus felt for him, he really did, but there was no use for it now.

"I could, Harry, but you must understand that now that Tom knows you are a Horcrux, he won't try to kill you. We might have more time to train you for the final confrontation." Albus tried to explain.

"But… It doesn't have to be me now, does it? Or will you make sure of it just so you can have your precious prophecy?" Harry spoke, deeply angry with him and the whole situation.

Albus knew that Harry wouldn't normally be this incensed; it was Tom's influence over him… he knew it.

"I think that will do for tonight, Harry," said Dumbledore after a moment or two.

"Yes, sir," said Harry.

Harry got to his feet, but did not leave. Albus hoped he would not ask too many prying questions. He hoped the boy hadn't learnt too much from Miss Granger.

"Sir ... is it important to know all this about Voldemort's past?"

"Very important, I think," said Dumbledore.

"And it... it's got something to do with the prophecy?"

"It has everything to do with the prophecy."

"Right," said Harry, looking a little confused, but reassured all the same.

Harry turned to go, then another question seemed to occur to him, and he turned back again.

"Sir, am I allowed to tell Ron and Hermione everything you've told me?"

Albus considered him for a moment, then said, "Yes, I think Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have proven themselves trustworthy. But Harry, I am going to ask you to ask them not to repeat any of this to anybody else. It would not be a good idea if word got around about how much I know, or suspect, about Lord Voldemort's secrets."

"No, sir, I'll make sure it's just Ron and Hermione. Good night."

Once Harry was gone from his office, Albus sighed in disappointment. He wished it could be so. He wished that Harry Potter had been just another boy, one of his students. But the course was laid out now. If he moved from it too much, the war could very well end with Voldemort winning. At least against Harry, at first. Once Harry died without coming back, Albus knew he would be next. What use would the rest of the world be against Voldemort without the two of them? They didn't understand, they hadn't heard the prophecy. The only one who heard the full prophecy was him, and now Tom Riddle.

* * *

Hermione aimed her wand expertly, and out of sight of any onlookers, at Harry's bag, as she silently had it rip; depositing the contents everywhere. "Bad luck Harry! Want me to help?" She bent down and bumped heads with him, causing him to drop the Prince's book. He held his head in pain as she finished repairing the rip in his bag. "There, good as new."

She picked up all the books, and put them in his bag. All except for the Advanced Potions book, which had mysteriously vanished, just as planned.

"Thanks, Hermione." He spoke ruefully, "I'm glad you know how to do these sorts of things. Otherwise I'd be carrying all of my supplies for the rest of the day."

"Honestly, Harry." She shook her head good-naturedly.

Also, just as planned, he didn't suspect Professor Snape. Oh no, it was obviously Draco. She was beginning to think Harry was obsessed with him this year.

* * *

One result of their enormous workload and the frantic hours of practicing nonverbal spells was that Hermione, Harry, and Ron had so far been unable to find time to go and visit Hagrid. He had stopped coming to meals at the staff table, an ominous sign, and on the few occasions when they had passed him in the corridors or out in the grounds, he had mysteriously failed to notice them or hear their greetings.

"We've got to go and explain," Hermione spoke as she looked up at Hagrid's huge empty chair at the staff table, the following Saturday at breakfast.

"We've got Quidditch tryouts this morning!" said Ron. "And we're supposed to be practicing that Aguamenti Charm from Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

"We didn't hate it!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Speak for yourself, I haven't forgotten the skrewts," said Ron darkly. "And I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. You didn't hear him going on about his gormless brother — we'd have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we'd stayed."

"I hate not talking to Hagrid," Hermione said, upset.

"We'll go down after Quidditch," Harry assured her. "But trials might take all morning, with the number of people who have applied. I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

"Oh, come on, Harry," said Hermione, suddenly impatient. "It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and frankly, you've never been more fanciable."

Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry. She had hoped he was over his crush on her, but twas not to be.

"Everyone knows you've been telling the truth this whole time, don't they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back, even those who had been delusional last year, and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they're calling you 'the Chosen One' — well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?"

"And you've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. Not that they got very far on that front. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway..."

"You can still see where the bludger got me in the last game, look," said Ron, shaking back his sleeves.

"And it doesn't hurt that you've grown about a foot over the summer either," Hermione finished, ignoring Ron.

"I'm tall," said Ron inconsequentially.

The post owls arrived, swooping down through rain-flecked windows, scattering everyone with droplets of water. Most people were receiving more post than usual; anxious parents were keen to hear from their children and to reassure them, in turn, that all was well at home. Hermione got post from Viktor, writing her about his new long-term girlfriend. He hoped to settle down with her after the war was done. He didn't like to imply the only reason he wanted to marry was that he was afraid that he wouldn't have the chance, come the end of what may. The snowy white Hedwig circled amongst all the brown and gray owls. She landed in front of Harry carrying a large, square package. A moment later, an identical package landed in front of Ron, crushing beneath it his minuscule and exhausted owl, Pigwidgeon.

Hermione stifled a laugh as she read her post, they were all sitting at the neutral table. The teachers allowed it.

"Hermione's right, Harry, you are very fanciable," Luna spoke up finally from her upside down copy of the Quibbler, "I just now noticed, but I think I fancy you."

Hermione began to giggle.

"Just now, Luna?" Harry spoke, bemused at his girlfriends antics. "Thanks ever so."

"Ha!" said Harry, unwrapping the parcel to reveal a new copy of Advanced Potion-Making, fresh from Flourish and Blotts.

"Oh good," said Hermione, delighted. "Now you can stop whining about the other copy you lost. The graffitied one."

"Are you mad?" said Harry. "I'll never forgive Malfoy for nicking it. Not ever. That book was a gold mine. I'm telling you, Hermione, a gold mine."

"You don't even know it was him." She spoke to the wind; it was obvious that Harry wouldn't listen to reason.

Hermione pressed her lips together, tired of trying to reason with him about Draco, but was distracted by a third owl landing in front of her carrying that day's copy of the Daily Prophet. She unfolded it hastily and scanned the front page.

"Anyone we know dead?" asked Ron in a determinedly casual voice; he posed the same question every time Hermione opened her paper.

"No, but there have been more dementor attacks," said Hermione. "And an arrest."

"Excellent, who?" said Harry. He seemed to think it would be a bad guy.

"Stan Shunpike," said Hermione.

"What?" said Harry, looking thoroughly startled.

"'Stanley Shunpike, conductor on the popular Wizarding con-veyance the Knight Bus, has been arrested on suspicion of Death Eater activity. Mr. Shunpike, 21, was taken into custody late last night after a raid on his Clapham home...'"

"Stan Shunpike, a Death Eater?" said Harry, a complex expression on his face. He looked to be remembering something."No way!"

"He might have been put under the Imperius Curse," said Ron reasonably. "You never can tell."

"It doesn't look like it," said Hermione, who was still reading. "It says here he was arrested after he was overheard talking about the Death Eaters' secret plans in a pub." She looked up, troubled by what she had read. "If he was under the Imperius Curse, he'd hardly stand around gossiping about their plans, would he?"

"It sounds like he was trying to make out he knew more than he did," said Ron. "Isn't he the one who claimed he was going to become Minister of Magic when he was trying to chat up those veela?"

"Yeah, that's him," said Harry. "I dunno what they're playing at, taking Stan seriously."

"They probably want to look as though they're doing something," said Hermione, frowning.

"People are terrified — you know the Patil twins' parents want them to go home? And Eloise Midgen has already been withdrawn. Her father picked her up last night."

"What!" said Ron, goggling at Hermione. "But Hogwarts is safer than their homes are bound to be! We've got Aurors, and all those extra protective spells, and we've got Dumbledore!"

"I don't think we've got him all the time," said Hermione very quietly, glancing toward the staff table over the top of the Prophet. "Haven't you noticed? His seat's been empty as often as Hagrid's this past week."

Harry and Ron looked up at the staff table. The headmaster's chair was indeed empty.

"I think he's left the school to do something with the Order," said Hermione in a low voice. "I mean... it's all looking serious, isn't it?"

Harry and Ron did not answer, but Hermione knew that they were all thinking the same thing. There had been a horrible incident the day before, when Hannah Abbott had been taken out of Herbology to be told her mother had been found dead. They had not seen Hannah since. She had known Hannah. Hannah hadn't spoken often about her mother. Hermione grieved for her but knew it was all that she could do right now, besides find the remaining Horcruxes. Her father would take care of her for now, they hadn't killed him because he wasn't a muggleborn or muggle.

When they left the neutral table five minutes later to head down to the Quidditch pitch, they passed Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Hermione was unsurprised to see that the two best friends were whispering together, looking distressed. What did surprise her was that when Ron drew level with them, Parvati suddenly nudged Lavender, who looked around and gave Ron a wide smile. Ron blinked at her, then returned the smile uncertainly. His walk instantly became something more like a strut. Harry looked like he was resisting the temptation to laugh; Hermione, however, smirked all the way down to the stadium through the cool, misty drizzle, and departed to find a place in the stands wishing Ron good luck in a slightly sing-song manner.

As Harry had told her to expect, the trials took most of the morning. She had hoped she could have grabbed them sooner for studying, but it didn't seem to be in the cards. Half of Gryffindor House seemed to have turned up, from third years who were nervously clutching a selection of the dreadful old school brooms, to seventh years who towered over the rest, looking coolly intimidating. The latter included a large, wiry-haired boy Hermione recognized immediately from the Hogwarts Express. She found him repugnant.

She watched a conversation take place between McLaggen and Harry, he got his sleaze all over him. Hermione sniggered as McLaggen was forced to go to the back of the line, close to her. He had obviously expected preferential treatment for some reason. Probably due to Slug Club.

Harry started with a basic test, asking all applicants for the team to divide into groups of ten and fly once around the pitch. This was a good decision: the first ten was made up of third years, and it could not have been plainer that they had hardly ever flown before. Only one boy managed to remain airborne for more than a few seconds, and he was so surprised he promptly crashed into one of the goal posts.

The second group was comprised of ten of the silliest girls Hermione had ever seen, who, when Harry blew his whistle, merely fell about giggling and clutching one another. Romilda Vane was amongst them. When he told them to leave the pitch, they did so quite cheerfully and went to sit in the stands to heckle everyone else.

The third group had a pile up halfway around the pitch. Most of the fourth group had come without broomsticks. The fifth group were Hufflepuffs.

"If there's anyone else here who's not from Gryffindor," roared Harry, who looked seriously annoyed, "leave now, please!"

There was a pause, then a couple of little Ravenclaws went sprinting off the pitch, snorting with laughter.

After two hours, many complaints, and several tantrums, one involving a crashed Comet Two Sixty and several broken teeth, Three Chasers were chosen: Katie Bell, returned to the team after an excellent trial; a new find called Demelza Robins, who was particularly good at dodging Bludgers; and Ginny Weasley, who had outflown all the competition and scored seventeen goals to boot. Harry had shouted himself hoarse, by that point, at the many complainers and was now enduring a similar battle with the rejected Beaters.

"That's my final decision and if you don't get out of the way of the Keepers I'll hex you," he bellowed.

Neither of the chosen Beaters had the old brilliance of Fred and George, but Harry still seemed reasonably pleased with them: Jimmy Peakes, a short but broad-chested third-year boy who had managed to hit the back of Harry's head with a ferociously hit Bludger, and Ritchie Coote, who looked weedy but aimed well. They now joined Katie, Demelza, and Ginny in the stands to watch the selection of their last team member.

Hermione was looking forward to this part. She had waited so that she could heckle McLaggen in particular. Ginny came to sit next to her, and Hermione spoke, "You did great out there, Gin. You'll make it on a professional team like the Harpies if you keep this up."

Ginny looked inordinately pleased by the compliment, her mouth going wide with her brilliant smile. "Really? Well, you would say that. You are my friend. And, well, don't take this the wrong way but, you suck at Quidditch."

"No offense taken." Hermione smiled back. "I'm used to your sass, Ginny."

None of the first five applicants saved more than two goals apiece. To Hermione's great disappointment, Cormac McLaggen saved four penalties out of five. On the last one, however, he shot off in completely the wrong direction; the crowd laughed and booed, and McLaggen returned to the ground grinding his teeth.

Ron looked ready to pass out as he mounted his Cleansweep Eleven. "Good luck!" cried a voice from the stands. Hermione looked around, it was Lavender Brown. Figured. She wondered if Ron was still continuing with Pansy, what he would think of Lavender as opposed to what he had with Pansy. It'd be a fresh change of pace for him, being with someone who actually acted like she cared. She turned to watch Ron do his trial; he saved one, two, three, four, five penalties in a row. She joined in with the cheering in the crowd, Ginny had left earlier to serve Ron one of the five quaffles.

Apparently McLaggen quite disagreed with that as he was currently yelling at Harry to give him another shot. Even though Ron had clearly won between the two of them. She found his bullying demeanor despicable.

"No," said Harry. "You've had your go. You saved four. Ron saved five. Ron's Keeper, he won it fair and square. Get out of my way."

She could hear Harry shout the last bit out across the stands. Hermione headed down to join them, just catching the view of a grumpy Lavender leaving arm in arm with Parvati.

After Harry fixed the time of their first full practice for the following Thursday, Hermione, Harry, and Ron bade good-bye to the team and headed off toward Hagrid's. A watery sun was trying to break through the clouds now, and it had stopped drizzling at last.

"I thought I was going to miss that fourth penalty," Ron was saying happily. "Tricky shot from Demelza, did you see, had a bit of spin on it —"

"Yes, yes, you were magnificent," said Hermione, looking amused.

"I was better than that McLaggen anyway," said Ron in a highly satisfied voice. "Did you see him lumbering off in the wrong direction on his fifth? Looked like he'd been Confunded..."

She smirked slightly as a blush ran up her cheeks. Ron noticed nothing; he was too busy describing each of his other penalties in loving detail. But Harry was giving her a scrutinizing look. She was glad she had knocked that arse down a few pegs.

The great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid's cabin. He clicked his razor-sharp beak at their approach and turned his huge head toward them.

She bowed to him once again, and he bowed back. "Nice to see you again, Buckbeak."

She pat his beak lovingly. His eyes closed in contentment. "Your friend is still in good hands."

Harry and Ron had no idea what she was talking about, she wasn't sure Buckbeak did either. But it was satisfying to act like he did.

Harry stepped forward and bowed low to the hippogriff without breaking eye contact or blinking. After a few seconds, Buckbeak sank into a bow too.

"How are you?" Harry asked him in a low voice, moving forward to stroke the feathery head. "Missing him? But you're okay here with Hagrid, aren't you?"

Buckbeak had been adopted by Sirius, who had a penchant for awesome ways of traveling. But he was busy with Order work at the moment. Completely out of the country, they told her. She had no idea what he was doing exactly, but she knew it was important.

"Oi!" said a loud voice.

Hagrid had come striding around the corner of his cabin, wearing a large flowery apron and carrying a sack of potatoes. His enormous boarhound, Fang, was at his heels; Fang gave a booming bark and bounded forward.

"Git away from him! He'll have yer fingers — oh. It's yeh lot."

Fang was jumping up at Hermione and Ron, attempting to lick their ears. Hagrid stood and looked at them all for a split second, then turned and strode into his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh dear!" said Hermione, she knew it must be bad if he would slam his door in their face.

"Don't worry about it," said Harry grimly. He walked over to the door and knocked loudly. "Hagrid! Open up, we want to talk to you!"

There was no sound from within.

"If you don't open the door, we'll blast it open!" Harry said, pulling out his wand.

"Harry!" said Hermione, hoping he was only threatening to do it. "You can't possibly —"

"Yeah, I can!" said Harry. "Stand back —"

But before he could say anything else, the door flew open again as she hoped Harry had known it would, and there stood Hagrid, glowering down at them and looking, despite the flowery apron, positively alarming.

"I'm a teacher!" he roared at Harry. "A teacher, Potter! How dare yeh threaten ter break down my door!"

"I'm sorry, sir" said Harry, emphasizing the last word as he stowed his wand inside his robes.

Hagrid looked stunned. "Since when have yeh called me 'sir'?"

"Since when have you called me 'Potter'?"

"Oh, very clever," growled Hagrid. "Very amusin'. That's me outsmarted, innit? All righ', come in then, yeh ungrateful little..."

Mumbling darkly, he stood back to let them pass. Hermione scurried in after Harry, looking rather frightened.

"Well?" said Hagrid grumpily, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down around his enormous wooden table, Fang laying his head immediately upon Harry's knee and drooling all over his robes. "What's this? Feelin' sorry for me? Reckon I'm lonely or summat?"

"No," said Harry at once. "We wanted to see you."

"We've missed you!" Hermione spoke tremulously.

"Missed me, have yeh?" snorted Hagrid. "Yeah. Righ'."

He stomped around, brewing up tea in his enormous copper kettle, muttering all the while. Finally, he slammed down three bucket-sized mugs of mahogany-brown tea in front of them, and a plate of his rock cakes.

"Hagrid," said Hermione timidly, when he joined them at the table and started peeling his potatoes with a brutality that suggested that each tuber had done him a great personal wrong, "we really wanted to carry on with Care of Magical Creatures, you know."

Hagrid gave another great snort.

"We did!" said Hermione. "But none of us could fit it into our schedules!"

"Yeah. Righ'," said Hagrid again.

There was a funny squelching sound and they all looked around: Hermione let out a tiny shriek, and Ron leapt out of his seat and hurried around the table, away from the large barrel standing in the corner that they had only just noticed. It was full of what looked like foot-long maggots, slimy, white, and writhing.

"What are they, Hagrid?" asked Harry; he seemed to be trying to sound interested rather than revolted, but he put down his rock cake all the same.

"Jus' giant grubs," said Hagrid.

"And they grow into... ?" said Ron, looking apprehensive.

"They won' grow inter nuthin'," said Hagrid. "I got 'em ter feed ter Aragog."

And without warning, he burst into tears.

"Hagrid!" cried Hermione, leaping up, hurrying around the table the long way to avoid the barrel of maggots, and putting an arm around his shaking shoulders. "What is it?"

"It's. . . him . .." gulped Hagrid, his beetle-black eyes streaming as he mopped his face with his apron. "It's . . . Aragog. ... I think he's dyin'. . , . He got ill over the summer an' he's not gettin' better... I don' know what I'll do if he ... if he ... We've bin tergether so long. ..."

Hermione patted Hagrid's shoulder, at a complete loss for anything to say. She had known Hagrid to present a vicious baby dragon with a teddy bear, seen him croon over giant scorpions with suckers and stingers, attempt to reason with his brutal giant of a half-brother, but this was perhaps the most incomprehensible of all his monster fancies: the gigantic talking spider, Aragog, who dwelled deep in the Forbidden Forest.

"Is there — is there anything we can do?" Hermione asked, ignoring Ron's frantic grimaces and head-shakings.

"I don' think there is, Hermione," choked Hagrid, attempting to stem the flood of his tears. "See, the rest o' the tribe... Aragog's family... they're gettin' a bit funny now he's ill... bit restive..."

"Yeah, big surprise," said Ron in an undertone.

"...I don' reckon it'd be safe fer anyone but me ter go near the colony at the mo'," Hagrid finished, blowing his nose hard on his apron and looking up. "But thanks fer offerin', Hermione... It means a lot..."

After that, the atmosphere lightened considerably, for although neither Harry nor Ron had shown any inclination to go and feed giant grubs to a murderous, gargantuan spider, Hagrid seemed to take it for granted that they would have liked to have done and became his usual self once more.

"Ar, I always knew yeh'd find it hard ter squeeze me inter yer timetables," he said gruffly, pouring them more tea. "Even if yeh applied fer Time-Turners —"

"We couldn't have done," said Hermione. "The Death Eater's stole the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners when they were there last summer. It was in the Daily Prophet."

"Ar, well then," said Hagrid. "There's no way yeh could've done it. ... I'm sorry I've bin — yeh know — I've jus' bin worried about Aragog ... an I did wonder whether, if Professor Grubbly-Plank had bin teachin' yeh —"

At which all three of them stated categorically and untruthfully that Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had substituted for Hagrid a few times, was a dreadful teacher, with the result that by the time Hagrid waved them off the premises at dusk, he looked quite cheerful.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

**The Royal Secrets**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**During the witches' hunt, while the English were content to hang their witches, the Scots burned theirs. Not only that, the victims had to pay for the 'privilege'. That's right, the Scottish lawmen presented itemised bills to the victims, charging them for things such as "peat, coals, wooden planks for the stake" and even for the salary of the workers who built it.**

* * *

That night was Slughorn's party. Harry was there as he hadn't enraged Professor Snape into giving him a detention yet. It was fairly boring. Slughorn was doing his best to pretend like he cared about her upbringing. He kept saying "Fascinating, fascinating." He got Harry to tell the story of meeting Voldemort, and escaping using his pin. How Dumbledore had known all along that Crouch Jr was planning to snatch him. Hermione snorted at that.

"Headmaster Dumbledore didn't know?" Slughorn asked her, interestedly.

"He did, that's the official story anyway. Some help, of course, is always necessary in these things. Grunt work. Eyes in the right place. Someone to bring the information to him to begin with." She spoke disinterestedly, miming cleaning her fingernails as she had seen Severus do many times before. It was a classic hook. Something to get them on the line.

"Who might that be?" Blaise asked her with a smug grin, "You, I suppose?"

"You should know by now I don't make claims without proof, Blaise." She smiled like a shark. "It wasn't me. But I'm not at liberty to discuss it. Promises, you know how it is. Perhaps, I could offer you another secret in its stead. I know something about Pansy and a mystery bloke that you would find absolutely fascinating. I won't speak of it here. You will have to ply me with something equally as interesting, some other time."

Harry blinked beside her, no doubt wondering where she had pulled this side of her out from. Really, it was just advanced mimicry. She acted like Blaise, because Blaise would be more comfortable with people like himself.

Blaise smiled slightly, "You can count on it, Princess."

Blaise had only reluctantly joined her side, in a sense, because he disliked the other sides more. He aimed for real power, not just terrorist groups, and she could respect that. He was the truest kind of Slytherin.

"Professor Slughorn, I wanted to ask why you did not invite Draco?" Hermione asked innocently, "He's a close friend of mine, and I see him going great places in his future."

Harry looked about ready to gag from her complimenting Draco.

"You vouch for him, then?" Slughorn looked at her with a skeptical expression. "His test scores weren't quite up to snuff, if you ask me."

Hermione smiled, "Some people just don't test well. It's hard to tell, just by a sheet of paper, what the true worth of a person is… He's very loyal and courageous for a Slytherin. External pressures from his family probably caused him to do poorly... on his test."

"Anyone else vouch for him?" Slughorn asked.

Blaise shrugged, unconcernedly. "Sure. He's alright when you get to know him."

The fact that it came from Blaise seemed more important than the fact that it wasn't a very convincing vouch, as Slughorn smiled widely and boomed, "Fantastic! He will be invited for next time, then. No more last minute invites though; I won't be able to host anymore students like this in my quarters."

Harry looked put out that he would have to spend anytime with Draco at all. That was just too bad for him, maybe he should be a little less obsessed with hating him. She felt sure Harry would snap one day and just start shouting at Draco, "Where is my book?! Also, what are you up to?!" He talked about both things semi-constantly.

* * *

Filch was standing at the oak front doors as usual, checking off the names of people who had permission to go into Hogsmeade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor.

"What does it matter if we're smuggling Dark stuff OUT?" demanded Ron, eyeing the long thin Secrecy Sensor with apprehension. "Surely you ought to be checking what we bring back IN?"

His cheek earned him a few extra jabs with the Sensor, and he was still wincing as they stepped out into the wind and sleet.

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Hermione wrapped her scarf over her lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once, Hermione wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warmth of Hogwarts common room, and when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry seemed to take it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was mercifully open, and Hermione and Harry staggered in his wake into the crowded shop.

"Thank God," shivered Ron as they were enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air. "Let's stay here all afternoon."

"Harry, m'boy!" said a booming voice from behind them.

"Oh no," muttered Harry. The three of them turned to see Professor Slughorn, who was wearing an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar, clutching a large bag of crystallized pineapple, and occupying at least a quarter of the shop.

"Harry, that's three of my little suppers you've missed now!" said Slughorn, poking him genially in the chest. "It won't do, m'boy, I'm determined to have you! Miss Granger loves them, don't you?"

"Yes," said Hermione humorlessly, she wasn't much pleased Harry was dodging the parties now that Draco was in attendance. "they're really fantastic."

"So why don't you come along, Harry?" demanded Slughorn.

"Well, I've had Quidditch practice, Professor," said Harry.

"Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all the hard work!" said Slughorn. "But a little recreation never hurt anybody. Now, how about Monday night, you can't possibly want to practice in this weather..."

"I can't, Professor, I've got — er — an appointment with Professor Dumbledore that evening."

"Unlucky again!" cried Slughorn dramatically. "Ah, well... you can't evade me forever, Harry! See you at the next one, Hermione!"

And with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters.

"I can't believe you've wriggled out of another one," said Hermione, shaking her head. "They're not that bad, you know... They're even quite fun sometimes..." But then she felt bad when she caught sight of Ron's expression. "Oh, look — they've got deluxe sugar quills — those would last hours!"

Harry showed much more interest in the new extra-large sugar quills than he would normally have done. It was of no use, as Ron continued to look moody and merely shrugged when Hermione asked him where he wanted to go next.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," said Harry. "It'll be warm."

They bundled their scarves back over their faces and left the sweetshop. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations.

Once they had made it, Ron and Harry ordered Butterbeer. "I'll have a nettle wine, Madam Rosmerta. Heard from Sirius by the way?"

Rosmerta shook her head no. "He said he'd floo call me when it was safe. I'll get all of your orders now." She smiled prettily and left to the bar. She came back with two butterbeers and one nettle wine. Hermione remembered it from the trap set by Professor Snape to guard the stone. It was a lovely color of blue, and tasted rich and fruity. She soon felt much warmer. She wasn't ready to howl at the moon, yet, but she felt the effects of the wine as she finished it.

"Ron, what are you staring at?"

"Nothing," said Ron, hastily looking away from the bar, but Hermione knew he was trying to catch the eye of the curvy and attractive barmaid, Madam Rosmerta, for whom he had long nursed a soft spot. Unluckily for him, Rosmerta was dating Sirius these days.

"I expect 'nothing's' in the back getting more firewhisky," said Hermione laughing at Ron slightly.

Ron ignored her jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence. Hermione drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes flickering between Ron and the bar. She wasn't sure how to break it to him that he had no chance with the barmaid. The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle she said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?"

The other two nodded; it had not been a fun trip, and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves, then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street. Hermione's thoughts went to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. She had promised to try to meet up with them after she had spent time with Dean. They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Hermione, because she and Dean were cozily closeted in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, that haunt of happy couples. She saw Harry scowling, his head bowed against the swirling sleet and trudging on. She suspected he had wanted to meet up with Luna, but Luna had chosen to stay in the Library because of the weather. Maybe he wanted to be like Dean and Ginny. She privately thought he and Luna would be around much longer than Ginny and Dean.

The rest of the trip back to the school was unremarkable.

* * *

"Harry seems to think that Draco is a Death Eater now, complete with Dark Mark." Hermione told Severus that evening after their Dark Arts lesson. She still hadn't figured out a new spell to show him. Her Arithmancy figures weren't playing nicely with her.

"Have you been close enough to him to check his arm?" Severus asked dryly.

She shrugged, and answered, "Not really. I'd have to grab that arm to see. He's been kind of squirrelly and stand-offish this year. He keeps giving me guilty looks during Slughorn's parties."

"Tell me something new. He's acting the same way with me," Severus sighed, "I've asked him multiple times now to let me help him... He's looking very unwell... I worry for him."

She sipped on the nettle wine he had offered her, after she had said she enjoyed it. He had told her that he was the maker of that particular wine. He made it to earn a little extra money. Professors didn't make very much on their salary.

"We saw him reserve something in Borgin and Burkes. The words he used made it clear he would not want whatever it was moved or sold to anyone else. He said he couldn't take it himself, in his own words, he said: 'How would I look carrying that down the street?' ...I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or bulky, something he knew would draw attention to him if he carried it down the street."

She thought back to it, he'd been behind that cabinet when he was threatening Borgin, possibly with his Dark Mark. Could he have meant the cabinet? "Just how much trouble would Draco be in if he failed with his part of the plan?"

"Narcissa, she's being threatened." Severus spoke sadly, "Lucius and Draco have to do whatever it is that is asked of them, or she dies. The Dark Lord is staying there, in their house, to make sure of their compliance. Lucius came to me, begging me to protect his son and his wife. I have to make sure Draco completes this task, protect him bodily should it come to it. I made an Unbreakable Vow."

Hermione thought this was beginning to sound complicated to solve. "I can work around that, if it becomes necessary. I will try to get him to speak to me, if I can, about this task of his. If not, I can simply follow him."

"You'll need this," He pulled out a piece of folded up parchment that she was sure she had seen go up in flames. "I made a copy for myself. I kept this one safe all this time; I haven't seen the need to give it back to you until now."

He placed the map in her trembling fingers, their hands touched and she felt a familiar jolt of pleasure. "Thank you. I had almost forgotten about this. I can't believe you made me think it was destroyed all this time. How did you do it?"

He chuckled, "It's a short distance apparate for objects, mixed with a little stage magic. Without the fire, you would have logically deduced that I simply took it."

"Neat," She spoke as she stowed the map.

* * *

"Wow, scary thought, the boy You-Know-Who," said Ron quietly, as they took their places around one of the gnarled Snargaluff stumps that formed this term's project, and began pulling on their protective gloves. "But I still don't get why Dumbledore's showing you all this. I mean, it's really interesting and everything, but what's the point?"

"Dunno," said Harry, inserting a gum shield. "But he says its all important and it'll help me survive."

"I think it's fascinating," said Hermione earnestly. "It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weaknesses?"

"So how was Slughorn's latest party?" Harry asked her thickly through the gum shield.

"Oh, it was quite fun, really," said Hermione, now putting on protective goggles. "I mean, he drones on about famous exploits a bit, and he absolutely fawns on McLaggen because he's so well connected, but he gave us some really nice food and he introduced us to Gwenog Jones."

"Gwenog Jones?" said Ron, his eyes widening under his own goggles. "The Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?"

"That's right," said Hermione. "Personally, I thought she was a bit full of herself, but —"

"Quite enough chat over here!" said Professor Sprout briskly, bustling over and looking stern.

"You're lagging behind, everybody else has started, and Neville's already got his first pod!"

They looked around; sure enough, there sat Neville with a bloody lip and several nasty scratches along the side of his face, but clutching an unpleasantly pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit.

"Okay, Professor, we're starting now!" said Ron.

Hermione kicked herself for not using Muffliato. Would've been better than getting a stern glare from the Hufflepuff Head of House.

She gave the other two an apprehensive look; they all took deep breaths and then dived at the gnarled stump between them.

It sprang to life at once; long, prickly, bramble like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. One tangled itself in Hermione's hair, and Ron beat it back with a pair of secateurs; Harry succeeded in trapping a couple of vines and knotting them together; a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle like branches; Hermione plunged her arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow; Harry and Ron tugged and wrenched at the vines, forcing the hole to open again, and Hermione snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod just like Neville's. At once, the prickly vines shot back inside, and the gnarled stump sat there looking like an innocently dead lump of wood.

"You know, I don't think I'll be having any of these in my garden when I've got my own place," said Ron, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and wiping sweat from his face.

"Pass me a bowl," said Hermione, holding the pulsating pod at arm's length; Harry handed one over and she dropped the pod into it, disgusted.

"Don't be squeamish, squeeze it out, they're best when they're fresh!" called Professor Sprout.

"Anyway," said Hermione, continuing their interrupted conversation as though a lump of wood had not just attacked them, "Slughorn's going to have a Christmas party, Harry, and there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come."

Harry groaned. Meanwhile, Ron, who was attempting to burst the pod in the bowl by putting both hands on it, standing up, and squashing it as hard as he could, said angrily, "And this is another party just for Slughorn's favorites, is it?"

"Just for the Slug Club, yes," said Hermione.

The pod flew out from under Ron's fingers and hit the green house glass, rebounding onto the back of Professor Sprout's head and knocking off her old, patched hat. As Harry went to retrieve the pod, Ron took that time to argue with her. It was obvious he was jealous of anything other people got to do but he didn't. When Harry got back, Hermione was saying, "Look, I didn't make up the name 'Slug Club' —"

"'Slug Club,'"repeated Ron with a sneer worthy of Draco on his most smug day. "It's pathetic. Well, I hope you enjoy your party. Why don't you try hooking up with McLaggen, then Slughorn can make you King and Queen Slug —"

"We're allowed to bring guests," said Hermione.

Ron began to look hopeful.

"Oh come off it, Ron. For one, you've been acting quite childish, why would I want to go with you? And for two, I didn't say I would bring anyone. I don't even like anyone in this school-"

"That's because you still fancy Krum, right?" He cut her off, angry and belligerent.

"He has a fiance and no, I don't still 'fancy' him. I never did."

She heard a crash, snapping her out of her argument with Ron. Harry had missed the pod, hit the bowl, and shattered it.

'"Reparo,"' he said hastily, poking the pieces with his wand, and the bowl sprang back together again.

"Hand that over, Harry," said Hermione hurriedly, checking out the instructions written in the book, "It says we're supposed to puncture them with something sharp..."

Harry passed her the pod in the bowl; he and Ron both snapped their goggles back over their eyes and dived, once more, for the stump.

"Gotcha!" yelled Ron, pulling a second pod from the stump just as Hermione had managed to burst the first one open, so that the bowl was full of tubers wriggling like pale green worms.

The rest of the lesson passed without further mention of Slughorn's party.

* * *

On the morning of Gryffindor's first match against Slytherin, Hermione, who had become so tired of Ron's recent unpleasant behavior that she had not come down to breakfast with the rest of her friends, paused on her way up the table.

"How are you both feeling?" she asked tentatively, her eyes on the back of Ron's head.

"Fine," said Harry, who was concentrating on handing Ron a glass of pumpkin juice. "There you go, Ron. Drink up."

Ron had just raised the glass to his lips when Hermione spoke sharply.

"Don't drink that, Ron!"

Both Harry and Ron looked up at her.

"Why not?" said Ron.

Hermione was now staring at Harry, she could not believe he had just done that.

"You just put something in that drink."

"Excuse me?" said Harry.

"You heard me. I saw you. You just tipped something into Ron's drink. You've got the bottle in your hand right now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Harry, stowing something hastily in his pocket.

"Ron, I warn you, don't drink it!" Hermione said again, alarmed, but Ron picked up the glass, drained it in one gulp, and said, "Stop bossing me around, Hermione."

She gasped, how dare he speak to her like that when she was only trying to make sure he wasn't expelled, or worse. Bending low so that only Harry could hear her, she hissed, "You should be expelled for that. I'd never have believed it of you, Harry!"

"Look who's talking," he whispered back. "Confunded anyone lately?"

She stormed up the table away from them. Confunding someone who deserved it was not the same as wasting Felix Felicis on a Quidditch match. Besides it being against the rules, it was daft to use it on something so small as Quidditch.

* * *

Ron and Harry were the last two in the changing room. They were just about to leave when Hermione entered. She was twisting her Hogwarts scarf in her hands, and looked upset but determined. "I want a word with you, Harry." She took a deep breath. "You shouldn't have done it. You heard Slughorn, its illegal."

"What are you going to do, turn us in?" demanded Ron.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Harry, turning away to hang up his robes.

"You know perfectly well what we're talking about!" said Hermione shrilly. "You spiked Ron's juice with lucky potion at breakfast! Felix Felicis!"

"No, I didn't," said Harry, turning back to face them both.

"Yes you did, Harry, and that's why everything went right, there were Slytherin players missing and Ron saved everything!"

"I didn't put it in!" said Harry, grinning broadly. He slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket, and drew out the tiny bottle that Hermione had seen in his hand that morning. It was full of golden potion and the cork was still tightly sealed with wax. "I wanted Ron to think I'd done it, so I faked it when I knew you were looking." He looked at Ron. "You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself."

He pocketed the potion again.

"There really wasn't anything in my pumpkin juice?" Ron said, astounded. "But the weather's good… and Vaisey couldn't play... I honestly haven't been given lucky potion?"

Harry shook his head. Ron gaped at him for a moment, then rounded on Hermione, imitating her voice. "You added Felix Felicis to Ron's juice this morning, that's why he saved everything! See! I can save goals without help, Hermione!"

"I never said you couldn't — Ron, you thought you'd been given it too!"

But Ron had already strode past her out of the door with his broomstick over his shoulder.

"Er," said Harry into the sudden silence, "shall… shall we go up to the party, then?"

Hermione looked at him sadly, "You go, Luna'll be waiting."

Harry reached forward and gave her a hug.

"I just don't know what I'm supposed to do about this, Harry. I didn't ask for him to have this… stupid, silly crush on me. Why?" She began to cry, she felt nostalgic for a simpler time.

Harry chuckled, "Give him time. He will find someone else, I'm sure of it. In the meantime, are you sure you don't like him back?"

Hermione choked out a laugh, "No. I really, really don't."

* * *

In the end, by the time Christmas rolled around, she went stag to Slughorn's Christmas party, where she eventually ran into Harry talking with Luna in a shaded, out of the way area.

"Hey, Hermione." Harry spoke as soon as he saw her, "It seems you got your wish after all. Ron can't seem to keep his lips off of Lavender Brown lately. Just before I left the common room to pick up Luna, they were going at it again."

She made a face at that, to which they both laughed. She felt a hand at her shoulder and she turned around; it was Draco. Now was the perfect time to try to pry information out of him.

"May I speak with you? Alone?" His eyes narrowed when they landed on Harry and Luna.

She let him lead the way into a curtained alcove. She applied the necessary wards and looked back at him seriously. "What is the matter?"

He looked shaky as he leaned against the wall. "I'm trapped, Hermione. I don't know who to trust… Who to turn to… It's all gone pear-shaped. Everything is just… wrong."

She sighed, "I gathered as much. Draco, do you think you can trust me? Is that why you wanted to talk?"

He looked up at her, his silver eyes shimmered with painful tears. He looked panicked, and she realized he had been panicked the whole time he had been back from summer break. He was holding his arms to keep them from shaking. "I want to, Hermione, I really want to… but I know you… you like to fix things. If you fix this, Mother might… no, she will die. I can't chance that."

Hermione looked at him appraisingly. "If that is the case… let me tell you that I already have most of your plan figured out. They need you for something, don't they? And since you can't apparate or disapparate directly onto Hogwarts… they need you to get in. It has to do with that cabinet in Borgin and Burkes. Yes, I followed you before you ask. You need it fixed, so it probably works normally in some way to get people from someplace to another. B&B's to here, I'm guessing."

Draco grabbed her painfully and held her against the wall, his chest pressing against hers. "You can't tell Dumbledore! You can't tell anyone, Hermione. I can't lose her, I can't lose my mother!"

His eyes were wide with fear but his pupils were dilated with something else. "I'm scared, Hermione. I can't lose you either."

He kissed her, and she was too shocked to move. She felt something about the kiss, but she couldn't tell what. He didn't linger, most likely because he realized he was forcing her into a corner, quite literally.

"Draco. I won't, you know I won't. But you have to talk to me. We have to mitigate the losses, no matter what. I will make sure they see it wasn't your fault, so that they won't hurt your mum." Hermione pulled him into a hug, which he happily returned.

Her hair had come out of her knot in tendrils and lay against her neck, his breath moved it as he tried to calm himself down. "I should have come to you sooner. I knew that, somewhere deep down, but I didn't want to worry you. I wanted to take care of it all myself. I wanted to be so calm and collected. Like my father or Uncle Severus."

She smiled, that was certainly the case sometimes. "I'm sure even they become panicked sometimes. It's okay, Draco. It's human."

He came out of her arms slowly, and reluctantly. "I'm sorry for… forcing myself on you like that. It wasn't right of me."

She pinched his arm. "There. You are all paid up in my books."

He smiled shyly, the look made him seem like less of a prat. "If I ask nicely, can I have another kiss?"

She shrugged, "Give it your best shot. I can't say I will say yes."

He nervously slicked back his hair and gave her a shy grin. "Hermione, all this time… I have felt a rush in my heart when I saw you. I tried for a few years to make it stop. But I couldn't. No matter what I tried to tell myself… I couldn't stop being in love with you. You don't even have to love me back. All I ask is if you would kiss me once, even in friendship, and it will make me brave enough to get through the pain." He stopped here to look at her with a certain seriousness, "Of knowing you already love another."

She was shocked, he knew? But how? When could he have seen them? They were exceedingly careful. She shut down that reaction before it could show on her face. "Don't be silly, Draco. Who could I have had time to date?"

He looked off in a distant point, although his eyes were still on hers. "I've seen you. At first, I didn't think it could be true. But, the way you trembled at his touch. The look you gave him in my library… I escaped back to my room. I had to be alone to think about it. I tried for the longest time to pretend it wasn't real."

She grabbed his head in her hands and gave him a searing kiss. His hands wound around her tightly. She backed away after only a few seconds. "You keep my secret… and I'll keep yours."

She left him reeling in the alcove and made her way back to Harry and Luna, who were 'talking' to Professor Trelawney. As Hermione approached, she smelt the cooking sherry rather strongly permeating the air.

"Ah, Sybil, we all think our subject's most important!" said a loud voice, and Slughorn appeared at Professor Trelawney's other side, his face very red, his velvet hat a little askew, a glass of mead in one hand and an enormous mince pie in the other. "But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions!" said Slughorn, regarding Harry with a fond, if bloodshot, eye.

"Instinctive, you know — like his mother! I've only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that, Sybil — why even Severus —" And to what looked like Harry's horror, Slughorn threw out an arm and seemed to scoop Severus out of thin air toward them. "Stop skulking and come and join us, Severus!" hiccuped Slughorn happily. "I was just talking about Harry's exceptional potion-making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!"

Trapped, with Slughorn's arm around his shoulders, Severus looked down his hooked nose at Harry, his black eyes narrowed. "Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all."

"Well, then, it's natural ability!" shouted Slughorn. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death — never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus —"

"Really?" said Snape quietly, his eyes still boring into Harry, who looked disquieted. Thankfully, he hadn't the "Prince's" assistance any longer.

"Remind me what other subjects you're taking, Harry?" asked Slughorn.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology..."

"All the subjects required, in short, for an Auror," said Severus with the faintest sneer.

"Yeah, well, that's what I'd like to do," said Harry defiantly.

"And a great one you'll make too!" boomed Slughorn.

"I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," said Luna unexpectedly. Everybody looked at her. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're planning to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a combination of Dark Magic and gum disease."

Harry inhaled half his mead up his nose as he started to laugh. Hermione joined them and patted Harry good-naturedly on the back to get him to stop choking on his mead.

"Lovely," Severus spoke as he extricated himself from Slughorn's arms. "I should be leaving now."

After he left she headed out to, only a little bit behind. She followed him down to the dungeons, her steps silent. He opened the door and smirked as he let her pass through. He closed and warded the door. She paced for a moment, trying to put her words together for what she had learned.

"Draco, he knows about us… He saw us in the library, during summer break of fourth year. When-"

"Yes, I remember it still, very clearly. That isn't really enough to suspect we are involved. Only that you may have had, or still have a crush on me." Severus spoke, unworried.

She felt guilty, "He kissed me. In a moment of panic. And I kissed him back equally panicked, when I thought he might believe that you and I, that we- I wasn't thinking clearly. I want to apologize. I know you would not have likely known about it if I hadn't told you. But I didn't want that on my conscience."

He pulled her into his arms, and she felt safe. "Hermione, you have nothing to apologize for… I've already told you that you can, and should, do as you wish. Not only because I don't own you, but because I can't claim you as mine… it would be selfish of me."

She began to cry silent tears. "I know you said that… But I still feel like I betrayed you. I love you, Severus. I don't want to do anything that might hurt you."

"Shh…" He spoke and slid his hands through her hair in a soothing gesture. "It's alright. As long as you love me, truly love me. I have no complaints." He tipped her face up and snared it there, she felt so embarrassed by her tears. "Beautiful girl."

He kissed her sweetly, and slowly. She felt herself melting in his arms. "Happy Christmas, Severus." She spoke, as she left his warm embrace, his soft lips.

"Happy Christmas, Hermione."


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

**The Royal Bones**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******Did you know that anyone contemplating suicide in pre-Victorian England was sure of success? Suicide was a capital offense so, if their attempt failed, they would be subject to criminal prosecution and sentenced to death.**

* * *

**APPARITION LESSONS**

**If you are seventeen years of age, or will turn seventeen on or before the 31st August next, you are eligible for a twelve-week course of Apparition Lessons from a Ministry of Magic Apparition instructor. Please sign below if you would like to participate. Cost: 12 Galleons.**

Hermione signed the slip that Dumbledore handed her, and spoke, "You may take the gold needed from my account to pay for this."

The Headmaster nodded and sent the parchment flying into a stack of other parchments. He turned to look her in the eye, but her Occlumency shields were well up. Dumbledore sighed sadly, "I wonder if I might confide in you, Miss Granger. And yet, I'm worried you don't trust me in the slightest."

She finished putting her quill away. "I'll always tell you the truth, where I can, Headmaster. I just find it instinctual to keep my guard up around powerful Legilimens."

"That may prove useful should you need to come up against Voldemort. Which, I'm beginning to fear, may be necessary. Your wand is a new factor to consider, Miss Granger. You claimed you could fix all wands with that one, is this true?" Dumbledore brought out his wand, the Elder Wand. "The Elder Wand is also capable of mending all other wands. It is said to have a core of thestral. Do you know what your wand core is made of? I've been curious, but with Ollivander…"

Hermione shook her head no. "I never thought to ask. That day was surreal, still is in my mind."

"So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death!" Dumbledore recited, "But, as we all know… No wizard truly has… Tom is obsessed with the idea that he can conquer Death. It is his greatest fear. Even though he has caused countless deaths of his own… he is not accepting of it coming for him someday."

Hermione spoke quietly, "I have seen Death. But I have not seen beyond it. I think that is what it truly means to conquer Death. As such, it is not possible for us wizards and witches to really master that wand. It was set up for failure all along. Perhaps, if you killed yourself with the wand, no one else could own it? There's a thought, let's get Voldemort to believe he can master it by dying by his own hand."

"You say the strangest things, Miss Granger." Dumbledore spoke repressively, "I know about Draco's plan."

Hermione looked up at the twinkling old man in shock.

"Oh, don't look so surprised. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Especially here at Hogwarts. Headmaster privilege, you know? With your O.W.L. scores… maybe someday you will know." He looked at the portraits on the wall with a measure of regret. "I thought that this year I might have to join them. I tire of this world, Miss Granger. I fear that may be affecting my judgment. I'm ready, I think, for the next great adventure."

"Are you really?" She queried with a healthy amount of doubt. "The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour. Would you be just as ready if it was not an adventure? If it was indeed the end of all observation? Something so black it cannot be seen. Something that marks an eternity, not of the soul, but of the beginning of a world unobserved by you? You cannot set out on an adventure you are not apart of."

"In a world of magic, you question life after death?" Dumbledore looked puzzled. "The ghosts moving among us. The Veil between worlds. The resurrection stone. None of this matters to you?"

"Perhaps it is all an illusion of a land that only the dead can see. What proof is there of life after death? Has anyone who has truly died, passed on completely, as is not the case with the ghosts, come back to say something the observer of the spirit did not know before the spirit spoke it?" Hermione smiled widely, "Don't make the mistake that I think I can know for sure. But I imagine Tom Riddle does believe that, even in a world with magic, death of body is the death of the self. He fears the loss of control. In some ways, I agree with him that death is a loss of control. Only, I'm not naive enough to think that by dying piece by piece, I can forestall death itself. He's a cautionary tale of how one can have a noble goal, but go about it the completely wrong way."

The Headmaster seemed boggled by her description of Riddle's quest for immortality being noble.

"He wants to never die. He doesn't want to always live. That is the difference, Headmaster. He doesn't rejoice in life. He worships at death's door, hoping death will pass him over, and only him." Hermione explained. "How can such a person ever hope to understand how to live forever?"

"And what has this to do with my own plan to die?" The Headmaster asked bluntly, foregoing much of his grandfatherly appearance.

Hermione's eyes strayed to Fawkes, cooing on his stand, head tucked under his wing. "Don't you understand yet, Headmaster? You are two sides of the same coin. He fears death because he fears a loss of control over his life. You have accepted death as inevitable to have a semblance of control over it. You even planned to be a martyr, thereby assuring you could control when and by whom you would die. It's all about the quest for autonomy of the self. But both of you were willing to sacrifice the autonomy of others to succeed."

"From whence do you come, Miss Granger?" Albus Dumbledore spoke heavily, "I have not seen anything of your like before."

"It's common in the muggle world, especially for the child of two highly intelligent people, to have some basic idea of these philosophies. I have noticed Wizards and Witches prefer a more simplistic model of viewing death, easily taken from a time before the Enlightenment. I'll not speak of this again if you would prefer to believe in an afterlife," Hermione calmly expressed.

"We shall see, Miss Granger."

"Or we won't." She smirked, wondering if he would get her dark humor.

She was dismissed soon after, dissatisfied with her attempt to banter philosophy with the aged wizard, who welcomed death like a friend. How could he hope to think himself impartial when he shared so many of the same traits with Voldemort?

* * *

Without the Prince's help in potions, Harry was as hopeless as he was before. Hermione thought it very amusing how much he had come to rely on someone he thought he hated. She was telling Severus the story of their latest Potions class fiasco, getting him to snort into his nettle wine at one particularly funny anecdote.

"So, of course when I handed Slughorn a bezoar, courtesy of something I remembered you saying in our very first class, and told him that none of us would be capable of creating an antidote in the space of one class… Harry had, by that time, wilted in his chair in defeat."

They grinned together, each sporting rather mischievous looking smirks. "I nearly died at the part where you described Potter clutching at his book, and glaring at Draco for nearly an entire minute."

She laughed in remembrance. "And then I mentioned the magical stasis field that would stop the body from undergoing metabolism of any potions or poisons… thereby giving Healers time to figure out a cure. Of course, that is much too advanced for just anyone to perform properly. Harry knew about both of those things, of course, but he refused to think for himself… to put two and two together."

"Speaking of Arthur Weasley, his condition is worsening. He's losing magic daily, if he survives this… it might just be as a squib." Severus spoke sadly, looking at her with a rare kind of sympathy, "My mother… that was her fate. By the end, she hadn't a drop of magic left in her. She died from an absence of hope."

Hermione shivered, "There's nothing more to be done?"

Severus gave her a strained smile, it just barely lifted the corners of his mouth. "He's receiving potions daily to keep up his strength. But he's losing his anchor to this world while he floats among dreams."

* * *

The snow melted around the school as February arrived, to be replaced by cold, dreary wetness. Purplish-grey clouds hung low over the castle and a constant fall of chilly rain made the lawns slippery and muddy. The upshot of this was that the sixth-years' first Apparition lesson, which was scheduled for a Saturday morning so that no normal lessons would be missed, took place in the Great Hall instead of in the grounds.

When Hermione and Harry arrived in the Hall (Ron had come down with Lavender) they found that the tables had disappeared. Rain lashed against the high windows and the enchanted ceiling swirled darkly above them, as they assembled in front of Professors McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick and Sprout - the Heads of House - and a small wizard whom Hermione took to be the Apparition Instructor from the Ministry. He was oddly colorless, with transparent eyelashes, wispy hair and an insubstantial air, as though a single gust of wind might blow him away. Hermione wondered idly whether constant disappearances and reappearances had somehow diminished his substance, or whether this frail build was ideal for anyone wishing to vanish.

"Good morning," said the Ministry wizard, when all the students had arrived and the Heads of House had called for quiet. "My name is Wilkie Twycross and I shall be your Ministry-Apparition Instructor for the next twelve weeks. I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparition test in this time -"

"Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!" barked Professor McGonagall.

Everybody looked round. Draco had flushed a dull pink; he looked furious as he stepped away from Crabbe, with whom he appeared to have been having a whispered argument. She saw Harry focus his attention more so on Draco and Severus, now that he thought he had a mystery to solve. Only he started with the assumption that the first person he suspected of the crime was obviously guilty.

"- by which time, many of you may be ready to take your test," Twycross continued, as though there had been no interruption.

"As you may know, it is usually impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts. The Headmaster has lifted this enchantment, purely within the Great Hall, for one hour, so as to enable you to practice. May I emphasize that you will not be able to Apparate outside the walls of this Hall, and that you would be unwise to try."

"I would like each of you to place yourselves now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you."

There was a great scrambling and jostling as people separated, banged into each other, and ordered others out of their space. The Heads of House moved among the students, marshaling them into position and breaking up arguments.

"Harry, where are you going?" Hermione demanded, as she saw Harry moving away from his spot quickly through the crowd, past the place where Professor Flitwick was making squeaky attempts to position a few Ravenclaws, all of whom wanted to be near the front, past Professor Sprout, who was chivying the Hufflepuffs into line, until, by dodging around Ernie Macmillan, he had managed to position himself right at the back of the crowd, directly behind Draco, who was taking advantage of the general upheaval to continue his argument with Crabbe, standing five feet away and looking mutinous.

Hermione rolled her eyes, he really was too obvious sometimes. Not that Draco seemed to notice, as he was oblivious to the fact that Harry had come up behind him, and had continued arguing with Crabbe without a break.

Harry said something which caused Draco to spin around on the spot, his hand flying to his wand, but at that precise moment the four Heads of House shouted, 'Quiet!' and silence fell again. Draco turned slowly to face the front.

"Thank you," said Twycross. "Now then …"

He waved his wand. Old-fashioned wooden hoops instantly appeared on the floor in front of every student.

"The important things to remember when Apparating are the three Ds!" said Twycross. "Destination, Determination, Deliberation!"

"Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination," said Twycross. "In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now."

Everybody looked around furtively, to check that everyone else was staring into their hoop, then hastily did as they were told. Hermione knew this was essentially the same process that went into silent casting. It was instinctual magic. Even children did it before they knew what they were doing. If they really wanted to be somewhere, if sufficiently scared for instance, they would suddenly be on roofs, or up in trees. She shut down her mind to everything but the thought of being in the hoop. She visualized it clear as day. And then she turned to apparate, wanting to move without moving. She popped out and back in existence in the blink of an eye. There was nothing in the void between, no air, no space, nothing.

Twycross was screaming, everyone was screaming, and she didn't understand it. She checked herself over, she was all there… no splinching. That's when she noticed Susan Bones, fallen over beside her, one half of her body lying partially in the hoop, the other half outside of it. Her eyes were dead. Her blood streamed out too quickly, there wasn't any time, the teacher's converged on her location to put the two halves together again. But it wasn't like putting a plug back in the wall; once the lights were out, they were out. The blood streamed into the cracks in the cobblestone, rivulets of a life now gone.

Hermione barely noticed the blood under her feet. Her apparition had startled Susan, that was what had done this… she knew it intuitively that if she hadn't apparated right next to her, while Susan was already struggling to focus, that Susan wouldn't be dead. She would probably have still splinched, no getting around that, but it wouldn't have led to this result. Susan, whose philosophy on Death was no different to much of the rest of the Wizarding World. A philosophy she had scoffed as simple. She was as chalk white as everyone else in the Hall, with specks of blood all over her face and clothes.

Many people lost control of themselves in one way or another over the next few seconds. "How can this happen?" Hermione spoke, colorlessly. Severus looked up at her in heartbreak, his hand still on Susan's limp wrist. "What will we tell Hannah? How can we tell her… this?"

Her knees began to fail, but Severus moved her out of the way of the blood and held her up. "Steady, Miss Granger."

The teachers, minus Severus, moved Susan's body out of the Hall, into the infirmary. Nobody spoke. She trembled, her eyes screwed shut to no avail. The image would be with her forever. Susan's eyes, blankly staring up at the enchanted ceiling, a reflection of the storm outside within them.

* * *

By March the others were again attending Apparition lessons. Hermione had proven that she could do it already, to a tragic effect, so she had stopped going. She couldn't look at the hoops without feeling a terrible coldness wash down her spine. She realized she had never taken the time to really get to know Susan, and now… Hermione questioned if she ever would. The official reason for Susan's death was that she had tried to apparate outside of Hogwarts, to home where she felt she would be safe, and was caught in that moment focusing half on that wish and half on the task in front of her. The Ministry official had explained that death by Apparition that was instantaneous like what had happened to Susan was incredibly rare. Hermione felt portkeys, flying, and floo travel would do her for the rest of her life.

There was a brief scare when Ron had been dosed with a love potion by Romilda Vane, he got over it soon enough, getting drunk in Slughorn's office. Harry had told her that he was absolutely insufferable about how in "love" he was with Vane. But even that did not lift her somber mood.

She tried not to blame herself, but a guilty conscience doesn't really work that way.

Ron had come out of the experience with one good idea. He had dumped Lavender Brown, and wasn't much looking at Hermione or anyone else of the female persuasion. "I mean it, Harry, no more women. They are crazy, enough to drive a bloke spare."

Harry simply raised his eyebrows as he looked from Ron to Luna, and back to Ron again. "Maybe it's you," he snarked, "Personally, I like a strange girl myself."

Hermione let them fade out of her awareness, she passed each day in a blur. She had devoted herself into school work and figuring out how to make her new spell. She was passing from scene to scene, without speaking any lines of consequence.

"Hermione," Severus asked her one night, concerned, "Why are you taking this so hard? It's been months."

Hermione shrugged, not feeling anything.

She wasn't worried when he shot up to examine her eyes. She felt nothing. He shouted something at her, but she didn't notice it. His worried face had no effect on her at all. She felt nothing when she looked at him. Should she? She remembered that she had, up until recently. But it was a fragmented distant memory. A memory, something stirred within her briefly. It fell back under the current of apathy.

His hands were gripping her tight, she didn't really care. The physical pain was there, but it had no effect on her.

"Hermione, you can't let it take you over. Drop your shields! Drop them now!" He shook her for a moment. "Legilimens!"

She felt him desperately pierce her shields, she felt a spark within her ignite. Suddenly, she was sobbing uncontrollably in his arms. She had no Occlumency shields up at all now. And it felt horrible. She felt every second of the grief that she had delayed for months, all in the same moment. She grabbed at his coat, the rough texture scraping her cheeks raw as she shuddered against him.

"She's gone… Severus, she's gone. It's such a stupid mortal thing to die. With all of magic at our hands… and we can die just as easily by it. She never saw it coming. She had no way to prepare for it… and now she will never be able to go on to do the things she had wanted to… she told me once… but I've completely forgotten… I'm so horrible… how can you stand it?" She gasped out painfully.

"I live," Severus spoke with a deep, soothing rumble, "I live, knowing that any moment could be my last, but I tell death… not yet, you impatient bastard." He laughed darkly. " And, you are not horrible, Hermione. Far from it."

She fell asleep in his arms, but he must have carried her to her room, because she woke up alone in her bed.

* * *

Spring passed by her with more waiting for the inevitable. Sooner or later, Draco's plan would be in motion. Hermione watched him falling apart day by day, the pressure of his assignment wearing him down. Harry was following him ceaselessly. He had even recruited Dobby to figure out where Draco was going, the Room of Requirement. Harry eventually got his act together and got the needed memory from Slughorn, there were seven soul pieces to release, eight if you counted the one in Voldemort. Hermione knew they had gotten three already, the locket, the diary, and the ring. Dumbledore had told Harry that Riddle had likely placed his soul pieces in artifacts from the Founders of Hogwarts. They knew Hufflepuff's Cup was one, though they did not know its location. They knew Harry was one. Hermione suspected the snake was one as well, Voldemort didn't seem like the pet keeping type, unless it had a purpose. That left something either of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.

So Hermione asked Luna.

"What famous artifacts exist of your house's founder, Luna?"

Luna smiled widely, "Well, there is her lost diadem, of course."

"What does it look like?" Hermione inquired.

So Luna had shown her up to the Ravenclaw common room, and she looked for a long moment at the portrait, with the diadem on her head, until she had memorized it.

"Thanks, Luna!"

Hermione made her way to the Room of Requirement, on a hunch; passing by it three times, she thought of how she needed a room where she could find lost things. She entered the plain door to a gigantic room filled with items. She closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. She followed it, her hand keeping her from running into anything. She opened her eyes, surprised to hear Draco muttering to himself nearby. He was not why she was here. She stayed quiet and concealed herself with an invisibility spell. He was working on a cabinet, just like the one in Borgin & Burkes. He sent an apple through as she watched, and then the apple came back, a bite taken out of it.

She ignored it as Draco left soon after, a grim smile on his face. Nothing more came through. She resolved to continue looking. There were many dark presences in the room, however, so it was hard to nail down exactly where it was. Finally, she just asked the room to lead her to Ravenclaw's Diadem.

She found it soon after, tucked inconspicuously on a stack of junk. She could feel it quite strongly now. "Revelare maledicere!"

The diadem was surrounded with a black cloud of badness. "Well, I guess that means it's cursed as well as having a bit of the Dark Snore within it."

She put on her dragon-hide gloves, which are basically curse proof, and picked up the Diadem. She could sense it trying to lure her into putting it on; she resisted and tossed it in her extendable bag.

The Headmaster seemed surprised to see her, even more so when she took out the diadem, and placed it on his desk. "It was under your nose the whole time. I knew three facts: 1. It was probably a Ravenclaw artifact, 2. Riddle came back but didn't find anything, 3. The Room of Requirement is the perfect place to hide things if you think you are the only one who knows about it. So I talked to a Ravenclaw. And here we are. Another Horcrux. Floo call Severus Snape. He needs to be here for this."

Moments later, Severus stepped out of the fireplace, looked at her, looked at the Headmaster, looked at the diadem, and then looked back at her.

"You wanted to see something new?" She spoke slightly tauntingly. "Invenietis in anima contrita!"

The diadem vibrated on the table. Hermione did a careful sequence of wand movements that looked much like a dance.

"Scopus anima partem!"

The diadem stopped shaking but a red light was emanating from it. She continued her wand dance.

"Aufero anima adflictam!"

Black smoke poured from the diadem and collected inside the bubble shield put up by Severus and Dumbledore. Here her dancing became more frantic, all leading up to a final circle and stab.

"Corrupta disperdere anima!"

The smoke turned from black to white and then clear. Then it was no more. The bubble shield dropped. "It's still cursed. You should call Bill, he can probably fix it. But, as you'll notice, not a Horcrux any more. Now, Harry doesn't have to die."

Severus gave her an approving nod. She had to sit down, sweat was dripping down her neck. Severus spoke, "I would have been happy with a new jinx… This is incredible."

But Hermione had fainted dead away in the chair.

When she woke up, she was in the Infirmary. It was quite dark. No one was around. She had woken up because her medallion was burning against her skin. She checked it, the news wasn't good. The Death Eaters were at Hogwarts.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

**The Royal Prophecy Girl**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******The post-mortem punishment for treason became statute law in Scotland in 1542, though the prosecution had to take place within five years of the death of the accused. As the Scottish Parliament succinctly put it: 'No man may excuse himself by death.' Being buried was no excuse either – traitorous corpses were disinterred to stand trial.**

* * *

The halls were silently empty, as she padded through them in her wolf form. She took air in through her nose; she could smell magic residue, they had gone through here fighting. She also detected the smell of something burning; she put her paws upon the nearest window sill and looked out into the night, her tail wagging slowly in apprehension. Hagrid's Hut was on fire. She followed the smell of someone familiar; Severus had been one of the fighters. He had probably been on the side of the Death Eaters.

She sped up, her nails clicking on the cobblestone. Her ears were perked to hear any odd noises. She made great time, finding Severus deflecting Harry's spells on the wet grass. It had rained recently, and the mud felt much better on her paws than the hard cobblestone. She crouched, crossing the lawn on her belly until she could hear what was being said.

"No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter!" Severus shouted over the rushing of the flames, Hagrid's yells, and the wild yelping of the trapped Fang. "You haven't got the nerve or the ability -"

"Incarc-"Harry roared, but Severus deflected the spell with an almost lazy flick of his arm.

"Fight back!" Harry screamed at him. "Fight back, you cowardly-"

"Coward, did you call me, Potter?" shouted Severus. "Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"

"Stupe-"

"Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut, Potter!" sneered Severus, deflecting the curse once more. "Now come!" he shouted at the huge Death Eater behind Harry. "It is time to be gone, before the Ministry turns up -"

"Impedi -"

Someone cursed Harry, and he fell to the ground in pain.

"No!" roared Severus. Harry lay curled on the dark grass, clutching his wand and panting. Severus was shouting, "Have you forgotten our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord - we are to leave him! Go! Go!"

The three other Death Eaters made for the gate, running past the prone form of Harry. Harry shakily got up from the muddy grass, staggering toward Severus.

"Avada-"

Severus flicked his wand, and the curse was repelled yet again. Harry was mere feet away now, staring hard into Severus' eyes. She looked on him, and saw a great and terrible rage overcoming him. He was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed a face full of rage. Harry was just glaring at him, concentrating on casting a silent spell.

"No, Potter!" screamed Severus. There was a loud BANG and Harry was soaring backward, hitting the ground hard again, and this time his wand flew out of his hand. She could hear Hagrid yelling and Fang howling as Severus closed in and looked down on Harry where he lay, wandless and defenseless. Severus' pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred.

"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them - I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don't think so... no."

Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight.

"Kill me then," panted Harry, his face a sculpture of rage and contempt. "Kill me, you coward -"

"DON'T -" screamed Severus, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them - "CALL ME COWARD!"

Hermione felt a roiling unease, watching the scene unfold before her. But she couldn't interfere. She made her way slowly around to the back of the hut, only Severus was still around after all. She turned back into a witch and doused the door with water from her wand. She ripped open the door, and Fang bounded out, over the flames. She shifted back and played with him for a moment, each of them licking the other.

Hermione watched as Severus flew away on the wind, leaving Harry knocked out cold in the grass. She bounded up to Harry, Fang right behind her. She sat her head on top of his chest, and whined. Hagrid soon came up to him with his pink umbrella wand, and revived him.

"Hagrid," muttered Harry, still looking dazed as he looked around.

"Yeh all righ', Harry? Yeh all righ'? Speak ter me, Harry..."

"I'm all right," panted Harry. "Are you?"

Hermione nudged them both with her large head, and whined.

"Course I am . . . take more'n that ter finish me."

Hagrid looked down at her finally. But Harry spoke, "Is this a new dog of yours Hagrid? She's almost as big as Fang."

Hagrid shook his head no, looking at her curiously. She licked his hand, and looked up at the cold, dark sky and howled. "Who're yeh, then? Friend or foe?"

She gave him the best Hermione glare she could in this form, her tail hitting the ground anxiously.

Hagrid's eyes widened. "Yeh're safe? They never found yeh… thank the stars fer that."

Harry bent down to look at her with his eyes narrowed, and then fell back down in the grass, laughing. After a while, he managed to get back up on his feet and he spoke more calmly, "You look quite regal in this form. Shame you weren't a lion. Although I don't see you taking orders from a man."

Hermione leapt up and put her large paws on his shoulders. She shifted back and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad to see you are all right. When I got this message on my medallion, I feared the worst. What's happened?"

"Snape and Malfoy led the Death Eaters into Hogwarts. I told you, Hermione, I told you he was a Death Eater. I told you he was up to something." Harry looked lost for a moment, "They were looking everywhere for you. I thought they had you. If you'd been captured…"

"I'm fine, Harry. I was in the Infirmary after using too much magic. Next time, I will do the spell with other people." She shook her head, hair moving wildly beside her face. "Casualties?"

"Malfoy… he cursed her, Hermione. He cursed Ginny. I was too slow, couldn't shield her in time. And then, Snape showed up, helped them… He didn't even hesitate when he saw her, just started cursing us… well, not me come to think of it. Lots of Dumbledore's Army is hurt badly, Ron is… Luna."

Harry's eyes filled with tears.

"Are they alive? Is anyone dead?" Hermione asked, insistently. She hadn't been awake when it mattered most. If anyone died… No, she couldn't hear that, not again.

"No one… No one is, as far as I know." Harry looked concerned. "We have to get back, see the others."

She walked back to the hospital wing, this time as a witch. The Infirmary was now filled with people who had made their way there, after being injured. Dumbledore was already there, looking gravely at a badly injured Bill Weasley. Ginny beside him on one side, Ron on the other. Molly was keening. Hermione saw so many DA members in the beds. None were dead. Madame Pomfrey, and whoever else that knew healing, were working their way through each patient.

She walked up to Dumbledore and asked him directly, "What was Tom here for? Is it true, did he come here looking for me?"

Dumbledore nodded sadly, "That appears to have been the case. I fought him off… but the children, most of them didn't stand much of a chance against these Death Eaters. Tom warned them not to kill unless absolutely necessary. He seemed to think he could kill me, and then take over Hogwarts. It's his old ambition, all over again."

Hermione looked pensively at the Headmaster's white beard. She cast Muffliato around them. "I assume this means that he has gone deep undercover now?"

The Headmaster nodded, expression grim.

"He's not safe there. Will he still meet with you?"

"No, it's too dangerous for us to meet now. Everything he does from now on, has to be done exactly as any other Death Eater would."

Hermione wished she had thought to enchant a medallion for him, one that she could use to just communicate with him.

"Tom failed tonight, that much is clear. He will be furious of course. But it was obvious that neither young Mr. Malfoy or Severus were at fault for not being able to locate you. I made sure that I told him I had you somewhere safe, somewhere he wouldn't think to look."

Fawkes landed next to Bill, a single tear falling onto his bloody, scratched face. The bird sung a soothing melody, everyone's hearts feeling lighter for it.

"Thank you, old friend." Dumbledore spoke to the bird.

Hermione drowned out the sounds of everyone around her vilifying Severus, they didn't know… they didn't understand what it took to be a spy. She wisely kept her mouth shut.

"Albus, I thought you said we could trust him… he did this to all of them by helping the Death Eaters get inside. He did this to these children, Albus!" Molly cried.

The Headmaster sighed, "I remember what I said, Molly… But I could not have foreseen this happening… His reason for defecting from Voldemort was perfect, he had no reason to betray us."

Hermione felt like she would be sick. How could they not see that this was all playing out exactly as Dumbledore had wanted it to… how were they so blind?

"Of course, it doesn't matter how he looks. . . . It's not r-really important. . . but he was a very handsome little b-boy . . . always very handsome . . . and he was g-going to be married!"

"And what do you mean by zat?" said Fleur suddenly and loudly. "What do you mean, ' he was going to be married?'"

Mrs. Weasley raised her tear-stained face, looking startled. "Well -only that-"

"You theenk Bill will not wish to marry me anymore?" demanded Fleur. "You theenk, because of these bites, he will not love me?"

"No, that's not what I -"

"Because 'e will!" said Fleur, drawing herself up to her full height and throwing back her long mane of silver hair. "It would take more zan a werewolf to stop Bill loving me!"

"Well, yes, I'm sure," said Mrs. Weasley, "but I thought perhaps - given how - how he -"

"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, her nostrils flaring. "What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!" she added fiercely, pushing Mrs. Weasley aside and snatching the ointment from her.

Hermione watched everyone with a vague expression on her face. They were all alive and they had the gall to be upset with Severus? To think him a traitor. They were blind, that's all there was to it.

"Our Great-Auntie Muriel," said Mrs. Weasley after a long pause, "has a very beautiful tiara - goblin-made - which I am sure I could persuade her to lend you for the wedding. She is very fond of Bill, you know, and it would look lovely with your hair."

"Thank you," said Fleur stiffly. "I am sure zat will be lovely."

And then, Hermione did not quite see how it happened, both women were crying and hugging each other. Completely bewildered, wondering whether the world had gone mad, she turned around: Dumbledore was twinkling merrily, and Tonks was looking daggers into Remus.

"You see!" Tonks said in a strained voice. She was glaring at Lupin. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!"

"It's different," said Lupin, barely moving his lips and looking suddenly tense. "Bill will not be a full werewolf. The cases are completely -"

"But I don't care either, I don't care!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times..."

"And I've told you a million times," said Lupin, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor, "that I am too old for you, too poor... too dangerous..."

"I've said all along you're taking a ridiculous line on this, Remus," said Mrs. Weasley over Fleur's shoulder as she patted her on the back.

"I am not being ridiculous," said Lupin steadily. "Tonks deserves somebody young and whole."

"But she wants you," said Mrs. Weasley, with a small smile. "And after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so."

She gestured sadly at her son, lying between them.

"This is... not the moment to discuss it," said Lupin, avoiding everybody's eyes as he looked around distractedly.

There wasn't much to the rest of the year after that. She felt a horrible bleakness at not seeing Severus at all for the rest of the war, hopefully it wouldn't come to that. If he could just send word, somehow, some way. Maybe meet her somewhere. She could give him the medallion she had made, after the fact.

"We'll be there, Harry," said Ron.

"What?"

"At your aunt and uncle's house," said Ron. "And then we'll go with you, wherever you're going."

"No -" said Harry quickly.

"You said to us once before," said Hermione quietly, "that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"

She remembered that night, her first year.

"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But, mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow."

"Why?"

"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"

Harry looked at him, startled.

"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that," he said finally.

She watched Harry's pensive expression lift into a slight smile. She grinned, "You know, you shouldn't leave Luna out of it either. Besides, she won't be any safer away from you than with you. You know this to be true."

Harry gave her a begrudging smile, "You're right, Hermione."

"Shut up, I know it!" She stuck her tongue out, and laughed at Ron's face.

"She joked, Harry." Ron looked shocked, "Is this a sign of the apocalypse?"

"Let's hope not," Harry spoke lightly, "I have enough on my plate with Voldemort and Horcrux hunting."

She knew that there were three left now. Harry, Nagini, and the cup. And whatever was left inside of Voldemort himself. They had time to figure it out.

* * *

The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.

"News?" asked the taller of the two.

"The best," replied Severus Snape.

The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, and on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.

"Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight. "It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?"

Severus nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the men's way. Neither of them broke step: In silence, both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.

The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a rustle somewhere to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again, pointing it over Severus' head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.

"He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks ..." Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.

A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge, a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as he and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.

The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall followed Severus and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then Severus turned the bronze handle.

The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Severus and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight were looking at it, except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.

"Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."

The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.

"Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. "Yaxley, sit beside Dolohov."

The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Severus, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.

"So?"

"My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."

The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Severus and Voldemort.

"Saturday ... at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Severus' black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Severus, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.

"Good. Very good. And this information comes from?"

"From the source we discussed," said Snape.

"My Lord."

Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Severus. All faces turned to him.

"My Lord, I have heard differently."

Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."

Severus smiled.

"My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."

"I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.

"If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."

"The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.

Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy."

Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.

"Where are they going to hide the boy next?"

"At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."

"Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"

Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.

"My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have, with difficulty and after great effort, succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."

Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.

"It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."

"Yes my Lord, that is true but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."

"As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."

"We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. "We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."

"He will not do either," said Severus. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."

"All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."

Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter is still at large is due more to my errors than to his triumphs. Once we have him captured, and under our control, we can get the girl, Hermione Granger. She has evaded us for too long."

The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Hermione Granger's continued absence from their midst. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.

"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to find Hermione, and I shall be."

At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.

"Gold," said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"

"Yes, my Lord." The mocking smile gone from his face; he looked completely different in Death Eater robes. His silver hand flashed as he left the table.

"As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to deal with Potter."

The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.

"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see ... Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."

Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.

"My Lord?"

"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."

"I ..."

Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.

"What is it?"

"Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.

"And the core?"

"Dragon- dragon heartstring."

"Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously.

"Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?"

Some of the throng sniggered.

"I have given you your wife's life, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late ... What is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?"

"Nothing, nothing, my Lord!"

"Such lies Lucius ... "

The soft voice seemed to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath the table.

The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders: its neck the thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking. Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy.

"Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"

"Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it, we do."

To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.

"My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted with emotion, "it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."

She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.

"No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."

Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight.

"My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"

"No higher pleasure ... even compared with the happy event that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"

She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.

"I don't know what you mean, my Lord."

"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."

There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The giant snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.

"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth. "We, Narcissa and I, have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."

"What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"

The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.

"Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."

And the laughter died at once.

"Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring, "You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."

"Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. "At the first chance!"

"You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world ... we shall cut away the cancer that infects us until only those of the true blood remain ..."

Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.

"Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.

Severus raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!"

"Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.

"And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. Now that the woman had woken, he seemed unable to look at her anymore.

"But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Sybill Trelawney who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth cackled.

"Yes ... Professor Trelawney made the prophecy that led to me marking Harry Potter… Giving him a little bit of me… enough to speak to snakes at any rate..."

One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Sybill Trelawney revolved to face Severus again.

"Severus... please... please..."

"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Sybill fell silent as if gagged. "We're not going to kill you, woman. No, we are going to keep you around, see what else pops out. And this time, I will hear the full prophecy. Particularly if it has anything at all to do with Hermione Granger."


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

**The Royal Escape**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******Did you know that it's against the law to check into a hotel in London under assumed names for the purpose of love-making?**

* * *

"All right, all right!" spoke Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"

"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."

"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"

"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."

Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.

"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.

"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can-"

"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."

Hermione thought, 'So that's where he learned to fly. Voldemort taught him.'

"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"

"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.

"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"

Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.

"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers' hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"

"He lost an ear," said Lupin.

"Lost an ear?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.

"Snape's work," said Lupin.

Hermione's knees felt weak. Had he meant to hit George? Or was he aiming for the other team, and missed?

"Snape?" shouted Harry. "You didn't say-"

"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."

Sectumsempra… Was this the spell Harry Potter shouldn't know? She felt ripped off that she hadn't had a chance to learn it from him, before the Death Eaters had taken him.

Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Sirius? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?

Harry was called into the house, and she let him go. She wanted to watch for the others on the lawn. Sirius and Fred were the next to arrive. Fred rushed past them, her and Kingsley, trying to get to George.

"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my brother, now back off if you know what's good for you!"

Hermione had never seen Fred look so serious.

"Fred!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"

"How is he?" Sirius asked, hanging back from the family scene.

For the first time since Hermione had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped, over the back of the sofa, at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.

Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and Sirius' arrival, George stirred.

"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.

George's fingers groped for the side of his head.

"Saintlike," he murmured.

"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"

"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"

Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.

"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"

"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."

He looked around.

"Hi, Harry- you are Harry, right?"

"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.

"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"

"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded.

Hermione backed away from the scene and went back to stand with the others. Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Hermione was reminded of Severus pacing his office, what seemed like a million years ago. Hermione now stood shoulder to shoulder with Hagrid and Remus, gazing upward in silence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.

The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree, in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves.

And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground.

"It's them!" Hermione screamed.

Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.

"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly toward Hermione and Harry.

"You're okay," he mumbled. He looked at her expectantly. She stood rooted to the spot. Ever since she had heard that Severus was among the Death Eaters, she had felt a ball of fear within her.

"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom-"

"You did?" said Hermione, hoping against hope that it wasn't Severus.

"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, arms crossed in front of himself. "Are we the last back?"

"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum you're okay, Ron."

She ran back inside.

"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.

"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus... Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us-"

A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.

"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Hermione, Harry, and Kingsley.

They recounted the stories of their own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.

"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."

Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Hermione thought she heard the faintest pop as Kingsley Disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.

Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind her. She hugged Ron fiercely before turning to Lupin and Tonks.

"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for my sons."

"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.

"How's George?" asked Lupin.

"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.

"He's lost-"

But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.

"Bill! Thank God, thank God!"

Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his mother, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."

Nobody spoke, nobody moved.

"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort- he can fly- went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out; Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom, and there was nothing we could do, nothing; we had half a dozen of them on our own tail..."

Bill's voice broke.

"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.

They all stood looking at each other. Hermione wondered why they thought Mundungus would be a good idea for this mission. Whose call was that?

At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's-?"

"Mad-Eye," said Sirius, "Dead."

The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief; Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.

Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of firewhisky and some glasses.

"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand, he sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank.

"Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. The firewhisky seared Hermione's throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into her, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality, firing her with something that was like courage.

"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.

The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Hermione, and slightly afraid of what they might hear.

"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skulduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."

So Mad-Eye was the one who had made that terrible call. At least it had only gotten him killed, and not someone else.

"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley... "

"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."

She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently daring any of them to contradict her. Nobody did. The only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccuping from behind his handkerchief.

"No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. "I mean... if somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort."

Hermione knew exactly who had let it slip, and he wasn't in this room. He was up in his cozy tower at Hogwarts. All to keep Severus' position secure.

"Did anyone think to change the plan after Professor Snape's defection?" Hermione spoke into the silence that had followed Harry's words.

"He wouldn't have known. Dumbledore wouldn't have told him that," Sirius spoke.

Hermione shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not."

"Well said, Harry," said Fred unexpectedly. They moved past Hermione's warning of a possible leak. It didn't much matter what she thought, the verdict was out. Severus Snape was a traitor in their eyes.

"Year, 'ear, 'ear," said George, with half a glance at Fred, the corner of whose mouth twitched.

Lupin was wearing an odd expression as he looked at Harry. It was close to pitying.

"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.

"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."

Before Harry could reply, Lupin had turned away from him, set down his glass upon a side table, and addressed Bill, "There's work to do. I can ask Kingsley whether-"

"No," said Bill at once, "I'll do it, I'll come."

"Where are you going?" said Tonks and Fleur together.

"Mad-Eye's body," said Lupin. "We need to recover it."

"Can't it- ?" began Mrs. Weasley with an appealing look at Bill.

"Wait?" said Bill, "Not unless you'd rather the Death Eaters took it?"

Nobody spoke. Lupin and Bill said goodbye and left.

The rest of them now dropped into chairs, all except for Harry, who remained standing. The suddenness and completeness of death was with them, like a presence.

"I've got to go too," said Harry.

Hermione nodded, understanding what Harry needed to do. The rest of the room was not so understanding.

"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, "What are you talking about?"

"I can't stay here."

He rubbed his forehead. Hermione knew what that meant.

"Have you gone lax with your practicing Occlumency, Harry? It's important! Now more than ever!" Hermione stressed.

Hedwig flew in the open door, landing on Harry's shoulder. She nipped at his unkempt hair. Hermione had made sure that the Dursley's had kept her at their house until the all clear was called.

"You can't leave, Harry. But we can't stay here long either." Hermione spoke to the rest of them. "No matter what you may say, this will be one of the first places they look for us. We'd be safer at Headquarters."

"Snape still has access there!" They bellowed at her.

"I know very well that he does. But the rest of the Death Eaters don't know where it is. It, and the Room of Requirement, are the two safest places to be right now."

Harry stumbled out and away from her, but she followed.

"Harry, come back in the house," Hermione whispered, "You aren't still thinking of leaving?"

"Yeah, you've got to stay, mate," said Ron, thumping Harry on the back.

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, close enough now to see Harry's face. "You look awful!"

"Well," said Harry shakily, "I probably look better than Ollivander..."

Then Harry told them what he had seen; Ron looked appalled, but Hermione probably looked downright terrified. She needed him to remember to close his mind, or who knows what might happen.

"But it was supposed to have stopped! Your scar- it wasn't supposed to do this anymore! You mustn't let that connection open up again. Dumbledore wanted you to close your mind!"

When he did not reply, she gripped his arm.

"Harry, he's taking over the Ministry, and the newspapers, and half the Wizarding world! Don't let him inside your head too!"

* * *

They had not been able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.

"The Daily Prophet hasn't said a word about him dying or about finding the body," Bill went on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."

"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?" Harry called across the table to Kingsley, who shook his head.

"Because they know I had no choice or because they don't want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?"

"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."

"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: I must not tell lies.

"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asked Ron angrily.

"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mrs. Weasley replied, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumors going around; I for one don't believe the Divination professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile, according to Kingsley, Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day; I just hope he's working on a plan."

There was a pause in which Mrs. Weasley magicked the empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.

"We must decide 'ow you will be disguised, 'Arry," said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. "For ze wedding," she added, when he looked confused. "Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey 'ave 'ad champagne."

"Yes, good point," said Mrs. Weasley from the top of the table where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment. "Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?"

"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!"

"We are holding your brother's wedding here in a few days' time, young man-"

"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left-"

"Ronald Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, "Don't talk to me like that again!"

Ron scowled at his mum, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart.

"I can help, some of it's my mess." Harry told Ron, but Mrs. Weasley cut across him.

"No, Harry dear, I'd much rather you helped with the chickens, and Hermione, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour; you know they're arriving at eleven tomorrow morning."

Hermione made her way up to Ron's attic bedroom, knowing that she had already done that chore yesterday. She decided to make her time go by with a little light reading.

* * *

Soon, Harry joined her and Ron in his room.

"Hi, Harry," she said, as he sat down on his camp bed.

"And how did you manage to get away?"

"Oh, Ron's mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday," said Hermione. She threw Numerology and Grammatica onto one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts onto the other.

"We were just talking about Mad-Eye," Ron told Harry. "I reckon he might have survived."

"But Bill saw him hit by the Killing Curse," said Harry.

"Yeah, but Bill was under attack too," said Ron. "How can he be sure what he saw?"

"Even if the Killing Curse missed, Mad-Eye still fell about a thousand feet," said Hermione, now weighing the Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland in her hand.

"He could have used a Shield Charm-"

"Fleur said his wand was blasted out of his hand," said Harry.

"Well, all right, if you want him to be dead," said Ron grumpily, punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape.

"Of course we don't want him to be dead!" said Hermione, shocked that he would think that. "It's dreadful that he's dead! But we're being realistic!"

"The Death Eaters probably tidied up after themselves, that's why no one's found him," said Ron wisely.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Like Barty Crouch, turned into a bone and buried in Hagrid's front garden. They probably transfigured Moody and stuffed him-"

"Don't!" Hermione trembled, and burst into tears over her copy of Spellman's Syllabary.

"Oh no," said Harry, squeaking as he struggled to get out of his camp bed. "Hermione, I wasn't trying to upset-"

But with a great creaking of rusty bed springs, Ron bounded off the bed and got there first. One arm around Hermione, he fished in his jeans pocket and withdrew a revolting-looking handkerchief that he had used to clean out the oven earlier. Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, "Tergeo."

The wand siphoned off most of the grease. Looking rather pleased with himself, Ron handed the slightly smoking handkerchief to Hermione.

"Oh... thanks, Ron... I'm sorry..." She blew her nose and hiccuped. She couldn't seem to control her emotions these days. "It's just so awf-ful, isn't it? R-right after Susan... I j-just n-never imagined Mad-Eye dying, somehow, he seemed so tough!"

"Yeah, I know," said Ron, giving her a squeeze. "But you know what he'd say to us if he was here?"

"'C-constant vigilance,'" said Hermione, mopping her eyes. The handkerchief was gross but it was better than having tears and mucus all over your face.

"That's right," said Ron, nodding. "He'd tell us to learn from what happened to him. And what I've learned is not to trust that cowardly little squirt, Mundungus."

Hermione gave a shaky laugh and leaned forward to pick up two more books. A second later, Ron had snatched his arm back from around her shoulders; she had dropped The Monster Book of Monsters on his foot. The book had broken free from its restraining belt and snapped viciously at Ron's ankle.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as Harry wrenched the book from Ron's leg and re-tied it shut.

"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked, limping back to his bed.

"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione, "When we're looking for the Horcruxes."

"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library."

"Ha ha," said Hermione, looking down at Spellman's Syllabary. "I wonder... will we need to translate runes? It's possible... I think we'd better take it, to be safe."

She dropped the syllabary onto the larger of the two piles and picked up Hogwarts, A History.

"Listen," said Harry.

He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance.

"I know you said after the Leaving Feast that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.

"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.

"As we knew he would," she sighed, turning back to the books. "You know, I think I will take Hogwarts, A History. Even if we're not going back there, I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't have it with-"

"Listen!" said Harry again.

"No, Harry, you listen," said Hermione. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago. Years, really."

"But-"

"Shut up," Ron advised him.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.

"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming Travels with Trolls onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose."

"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me. Or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you."

"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't- Well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."

Suddenly, Hermione felt the weight of that decision weighing heavily on her. Her eyes began to swim with tears, which led Ron to hug her once more. She let him, because she needed a hug now more than ever. Hermione had felt awful for weeks now, with the loss of Severus from her life… And now she had had to give her parents away as well to protect them. She woke up most mornings feeling sick to her stomach, and nothing changed that. If anything, it got worse throughout the day.

* * *

Hermione had the resurrection stone in her bag. Dumbledore had given it to her before they left for the trains on the last day of the year. He still had the wand, of course; he told her that, when the time came for Harry to face Voldemort, he would let Harry disarm him.

Hermione watched Harry dancing with Luna at the wedding of Bill and Fleur. His eyes had softened while he slowly spun around with her in his arms. Hermione had sat down at the table and not gotten up. She didn't feel up to dancing with anyone who wasn't Severus. But to see Harry enjoying himself was happiness enough for her today. Ron was sulking because she had told him no to a dance, but she was ignoring him.

Harry was disguised but Luna had known right away who he was, and had led him away to sway on the dance floor. Ginny sat beside Hermione, equally not wanting to dance,

"He seems calmer and happier with her." Ginny spoke idly. "Not as focused on the wrong in the world."

Hermione nodded, sipping her champagne.

"I thought I wanted him, you know?" Ginny sighed, "I thought if I waited long enough he'd see me like I saw him. But it was just foolish hero worshiping on my part. I tried making him jealous last year... with Dean. But I couldn't manage it. He really loves her, huh?"

Hermione continued to nod. "Luna opens up a side of Harry that he tries to repress. His inner child. All along he's trying to prove he can look out for himself, and that he needs to 'save' others. And along comes Luna, who sees through him. Sees that what he really wants is someone who can make him laugh when he's angry, make him smile when he's crying, and show him another perspective when he's shoving himself into a corner with his own."

"And what about Luna? Why does she like Harry?" Ginny asked, slightly slurring her words.

Hermione watched Luna's wide gray eyes focus intently on Harry's disguised face. "He makes her come down from the clouds once in a while. Shows her that there is something real, right in front of her, that is more fascinating than any Nargles or Crumple-Horned Snorkacks can possibly hope to be. He adds a sense of urgency to her life."

Ginny began to cry beside her, and Hermione didn't know what to do. Ginny flew up from the chair, and left to go back to her house. Hermione felt slightly guilty for speaking about Harry and Luna like that in front of Ginny, but she had asked.

Like her father, Luna was wearing bright yellow robes, which she had accessorized with a large sunflower in her hair. Once you got over the brightness of it all, the general effect was quite pleasant. At least there were no radishes dangling from her ears.

Xenophilius, who was deep in conversation with an acquaintance, had missed the dance between Luna and Harry. Bidding the wizard farewell, he turned to his daughter, who held up her finger and said, "Daddy, look. One of the gnomes actually bit me."

"How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial." Said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna's outstretched fingers and examining the bleeding puncture marks. "Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today ¨Perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera, or to declaims in Mermish, do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!"

Ron, passing them in the opposite direction, let out a loud snort.

"Ron can laugh," said Luna serenely as Harry led her and Xenophilius toward Hermione, "but my father has done a lot of research on Gernumbli magic."

"Really?" said Harry, now smiling at her once again. "Are you sure you don't want to put anything on that bite, though?"

"Oh, it's fine," said Luna, sucking her finger in a dreamy fashion, and looking Harry up and down. "You look smart. I told Daddy most people would probably wear dress robes, but he believes you ought to wear sun colors to a wedding, for luck, you know."

Harry watched her intently as she put her finger in her mouth. Hermione chortled, "Oh, Harry. Do be a gentleman."

"I can't help it alright," Harry shouted, the wedding party was quite loud, "She's my girlfriend. Everything she does is sexy."

Thankfully, Luna's father wasn't around to hear that, but it did not matter; at that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus' mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

**The Royal Baby**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirfly5:**

**"Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad."**

**-Anne Geddes**

**I also want to thank a newcomer who looked at my little profile: India.**

* * *

Everything seemed fuzzy, slow. Hermione and Harry jumped to their feet and drew their wands. Luna pulled hers from behind her ear in a flourish. Many people were only just realizing that something strange had happened; heads were still turning toward the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.

Hermione, Harry, and Luna threw themselves into the panicking crowd. Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken.

"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "Ron, where are you?"

"Ron! Ron!" Hermione called, as she, Harry, and Luna were buffered by terrified guests: Harry seized their hands as a streak of light whizzed over their heads, whether a protective charm or something more sinister she did not know.

And then Ron was there. He caught hold of Hermione's free arm, and Hermione turned on the spot; sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon her; all she could feel was Harry and Ron's hand as she was squeezed through space and time, away from the Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself...

"Where are we?" said Ron's voice.

"Somewhere safe," Hermione spoke, panting. "Grimmauld Place, in the attic. Lights are out. Let me just-"

She lit the sconces, they came to life. The attic was empty of all except for them.

"Before we go any farther, I think we'd better check," whispered Hermione, and she raised her wand and said, "Homenum revelio."

Nothing happened.

"Alright, it's safe for us to go down." Hermione said, and she led the way down the creaking stairs to the drawing room on the first floor.

Hermione waved her wand to ignite the old gas lamps; then, shivering slightly in the drafty room, she perched on the sofa, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Ron crossed to the window and moved the heavy velvet curtains aside an inch. Harry and Luna were quick to take a seat by the fire.

"Can't see anyone out there," he reported. "And you'd think, if Harry still had a Trace on him, they'd have followed us here. I know they can't get in the house, but-"

Harry wasn't Occluding, Voldemort was filling his mind. He cried out in pain, Luna held his shoulders.

"What did you see?" Ron asked, advancing on Harry. "Did you see him at my place?"

"No, I just felt anger- he's really angry-"

"But that could be at the Burrow," said Ron loudly. "What else? Didn't you see anything? Was he cursing someone?"

"No, I just felt anger- I couldn't tell-"

"Harry, he's using the piece of himself inside you. Block it off. Don't let him in." Hermione urged, trying to get through to him.

"Let's meditate," Luna spoke, shifting in the couch so that she was facing Harry.

After an hour, Harry was calm again. The connection was closed; he was Occluding again. Even Ron had tried the meditation. Hermione felt her own Occlumency shields become stronger. Hermione took out some clothes from her beaded bag. "I packed for all of us. I took some of your clothes, last time we were in your house, Luna. Hope you don't mind."

Luna simply took the clothes and went to change out of her fancy party dress. Hermione, Harry, and Ron did the same in other rooms. They rushed so that they were all back in the room together within minutes.

"I don't want to be on my own. Could we use the sleeping bags I've brought and camp in here tonight?" Hermione spoke, they all agreed readily. "This will be my first real sleepover. How ironic it is to be while on the run from Death Eaters."

* * *

Hermione woke early next morning, wrapped in a sleeping bag on the drawing room floor. A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for Harry, Ron and Luna's slow, deep breathing. Hermione glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside her. Harry had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Luna sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Harry's. Hermione wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands. The idea made her feel strangely lonely.

She wondered whether Severus was even still alive. He was ensconced with them, the Death Eaters, and had no great chance of making it out of there in one piece if they knew of his loyalties. She thought that she needed to see him, needed to hear his voice more than anything. She crept out of the drawing room and entered the Library. If she closed her eyes, she could almost hear him, turning the page of a book. Or mocking Remus about some past foible. Maybe even breathing in her ear, the breath from his warm, sinfully curved mouth moving tendrils of her hair.

"Don't scream." He spoke, and she knew it wasn't all in her mind.

She turned around, smiling widely to see him. Her smile faltered when she saw the state he was in. He had never looked as sickly as he did standing before her that cold morning. "I have no intention of doing so… unless…" She smirked, she left out the implications.

He trembled, and lowered himself, until he had her wrapped in his arms. "Hermione… there is so much to say… but not enough time."

Hermione pulled him closer, and spoke, "I have something for you. It will allow us to send messages to each other. I was hoping that I would have the chance to give it to you."

He stepped back from her and examined the medallion she held in her hand. "Swallows," He spoke deeply, "Like on your shawl… at the Yule Ball."

She nodded, tearing up. "Take it."

He took the medallion and unbuttoned his coat and white undershirt, placing the medallion on his scarred chest, over his heart. "Thank you," He rumbled, shirt still undone.

She nuzzled against his chest, breathing him in. He sighed in contentment, arms around her, where they should be. "Severus. Don't go back."

"I must. You know I can't come back to the Order. Dumbledore will only exonerate me on the death of the Dark Lord." He kissed the top of her head. He wasn't much taller than her now, but he could still do that, make her feel protected.

She reached up and seized his lips with her own. She felt like she was coming home. Time slowed as she felt her heart beating in her chest to claim him. To make him know she would always love him, that even should he die… she would never let him go. The kiss lasted an eternity, and yet was over much too soon. "I would follow you into hell, Severus. If you leave me, if you die like a Gryffindor martyr, I will chase you down to whatever circle of hell you end up in and drag you right back out. Nothing, absolutely nothing would stop me… not even the laws of the universe."

He chuckled, "I don't doubt that, Hermione. You would make the king of hell shake in his boots. If I do die, promise me…. Hermione, promise me that you will live on. Don't be foolish and sacrifice yourself in the name of love. You deserve a full life more than anyone. Plus, I couldn't stand it if we did actually die like Romeo & Juliet. I don't think I could live that down in whatever afterlife would have me."

She kissed him once again, sweetly, as she smiled. "Not to worry. I don't want to die. I just want you to live. Don't think that I couldn't find some way to make sure of it."

"Clever girl like you could probably 'stop' Death without breaking into a sweat." He smirked, and pushed back her hair; it was wild from sleep. "Speaking of which, I have something for you."

He pulled out another journal full of Dark Arts spells. "There is the revised form of Sectumsempra in here, along with its counter-curse. Along with a few other spells, as well, that might be useful to you."

She snatched it happily, but then she thought of George. "You hit George, you know."

He scowled, "I wasn't aiming for him, but I had to swerve to avoid a curse coming at me. I was trying to hit someone else. Dolohov."

"Have you any idea where he could be hiding the cup?" Hermione asked, as a long shot.

Severus became distant. "No, but I think it's in the care of one of his staunchest supporters. I just haven't figured out who."

He gave her one last kiss before leaving, disarming all of Mad-eye's jinxes without any trouble as he left. The light had broken through the window. She felt as if she had woken from a beautiful dream, shaking into cold reality.

* * *

She found Harry upstairs, in Sirius' room. He was clutching a piece of parchment and a photograph.

"Look what I've just found"

He held out his mother's letter. Hermione took it out, and read it while Harry watched her. When she reached the end of the page, she looked up at him.

"Oh Harry..."

"And there's this too"

He handed her the photograph, and Hermione smiled at the baby zooming in and out of sight on the toy broom. And Lily, watching her son with fondness. Harry wouldn't know what it meant that Severus had gone through all of this, but hadn't taken a picture of Lily with him, but she did. Her smile softened.

"I've been looking for the rest of the letter," Harry said, "but it's not here."

Hermione glanced around.

"Did you make all this mess, or was some of it done when you got here?"

"Someone had searched before me," said Harry.

"I thought so. Every room I looked into on the way up had been disturbed. What were they after, do you think?" She saw no reason to tell him she knew who had been here.

"Information on the Order, if it was Snape."

"But you'd think he'd already have all he needed. I mean was in the Order, wasn't he?"

"Well then," said Harry, looking keen to discuss his theory, "what about information on Dumbledore? The second page of the letter, for instance. You know this Bathilda my mum mentions, you know who she is?"

"Who?"

"Bathilda Bagshot, the author of-"

"A History of Magic," said Hermione, now becoming interested. "So your parents knew her? She was an incredible magic historian."

"And she's still alive," said Harry, "and she lives in Godric's Hollow. Ron's Auntie Muriel was talking about her at the wedding. She knew Dumbledore's family too. Be pretty interesting to talk to, wouldn't she?" Hermione smiled with understanding. He took back the letter and the photograph, and tucked them inside the pouch around his neck.

"I understand why you'd love to talk to her about your mum and dad, and Dumbledore too," said Hermione. "But that wouldn't really help us in our search for the Horcruxes, would it?" Harry did not answer, and she rushed on, "Harry, I know you really want to go to Godric's Hollow, but I'm scared. I'm scared at how easily those Death Eaters found us yesterday. It just makes me feel more than ever that we ought to avoid the place where your parents are buried, I'm sure they'd be expecting you to visit it."

"It's not just that," Harry said, still avoiding looking at her, "Muriel said stuff about Dumbledore at the wedding. I want to know the truth..."

He told Hermione everything that Muriel had told him. When he had finished, Hermione said, "Of course, I can see why that's upset you, Harry-"

"I'm not upset," Harry tried to lie, "I'd just like to know whether or not it's true or-"

"Harry, do you really think you'll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter?"

"I thought I would try to keep an open mind," he muttered.

Hermione smiled, "And that's perfectly fine, but we need to play it more cautiously." She frowned, thinking about all that needed to be done. Harry couldn't go gallivanting off now, he could be caught and that would make their mission much harder. "Shall we go down to the kitchen?" Hermione suggested after a little pause. "Find something for breakfast?"

* * *

There was no Kreacher in the house, at some point Sirius must have handed him clothes, so they made do themselves with what supplies Mrs. Weasley had kept in the place. They had heard from her last night; she had told them to stay wherever they were if it was safe. The rest of the Order was scrambling to protect everyone else that they could. Ginny had been captured, probably as a way to lure out Harry, but that part of the message had only gone to her. They didn't want Harry haring off into danger, and she quite agreed with them. They could find and save Ginny after everything was in place.

Grimmauld place was the safest place for them to be right now as its secret keeper was alive and well, and not likely to die anytime soon. So they were stuck there, all four of them, for the time being, until they could find and destroy the next Horcrux. None of the others wished to lead the Death Eaters to Headquarters where Hermione and Harry were being kept safe, so they had no one show up, only Patronus messages came throughout the day and night.

Mrs. Black wasn't happy with them living there, she kept going on and on about blood traitors and mudbloods living in her house. Hermione sat down across from her one day to have a little chat. Mrs. Black started off screaming, until she saw Hermione's wand.

"Where did you get that, girl?" Mrs. Black said, mistrusting Hermione to have been showing her the real thing.

Hermione asked Ron over to try to touch it, as a demonstration. Mrs. Black cackled as Ron was forced to his knees in front of Hermione. "I got it from Mr. Ollivander, the caretaker of the Royal Wand. It is mine now, rightfully, so I would be grateful to you if you could stop screaming at myself and my friends."

"So the Royal line did turn squib and marry muggles, that is not surprising. So many of our older lines faded away like that, the magic going out of them, making them mate with filthy muggles." Mrs. Black looked disgusted at two humans, essentially, doing what came naturally to them. Hermione was reminded of people disgusted by gay marriage, or even more aptly, interracial marriage.

"Could it be that the only difference between squibs and muggles is simply the knowledge of the wizarding world?" Hermione mused. "Would that knowledge be enough to break the enchantments against muggles seeing Hogwarts, and other magical places?"

Mrs. Black shook her head, "A squib still has some magic left over, residual magic if you will, that lets them sense magic more acutely than muggles, but less acutely than wizards."

"Fascinating, simply fascinating. You know, I think I have a good compromise for you. I know it must be awful to basically be shunned and covered up all the time, with no one to talk to. Do you think you could tone down on the screaming if I found you someone to speak with, another portrait perhaps? Surely there is someone in your family that you would like to speak with?" Hermione bargained.

"Phineas. Phineas Nigellus Black. His portrait is linked to the Headmaster's office so he probably won't be in it." Mrs. Black spoke, calmly for once.

At that very moment, a figure appeared in the Hall; she silenced Mrs. Black with her forefinger against her lips, and held herself behind the bannister, in the shadows. Harry and Ron came from the Kitchen, wands drawn.

"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"

Ron began to put his wand away, but Harry did not. Luna was still in the kitchen, apparently unconcerned.

"Show yourself!" Harry called back.

Lupin moved forward into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender.

"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag."

"Oh, all right," said Harry, lowering his wand, "but I had to check, didn't I?"

"Speaking as your ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, you shouldn't be so quick to lower your defenses. Hermione, nice job hiding in the shadows, but unfortunately, Mrs. Black gave your position away by continuing to look at you."

Hermione ran down the stairs towards him. Wrapped in a thick black traveling cloak, he looked exhausted, but pleased to see them.

"No sign of Severus, then?" he asked.

Hermione said nothing, and gave nothing away with her eyes or posture.

"No," said Harry. "What's going on? Is everyone okay?"

"Yes," said Lupin, "but we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside-"

"We know-"

"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, Harry. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you, and I want to know what happened after you left the Burrow."

They descended into the kitchen, where Hermione pointed her wand at the grate. A fire sprang up instantly: It gave the illusion of coziness to the stark stone walls, and glistened off the long wooden table. Lupin pulled a few butterbeers from beneath his traveling cloak and they sat down.

"I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me," said Lupin. "So, you came straight here after the wedding?"

Hermione nodded, "A strange thing happened, I was able to apparate directly into the attic. I wasn't even touching Luna and she came with us as she was holding Harry's hand."

Remus looked down at her wand, "That's likely a feature of your wand, Hermione. You should keep notes on any other out of the ordinary things your wand can do."

"I might at that," she said, smiling happily at seeing Remus alive and well. She had been worrying that with Bellatrix targeting them, that they would be in too much danger. "We wondered," said Hermione tentatively, "whether Harry could still have the Trace on him?"

"Impossible," said Lupin. Ron looked smug, and Harry relieved. "Apart from anything else, they'd know for sure Harry was here if he still had the Trace on him, wouldn't they?"

Hermione shrugged, "Maybe… But something's not adding up with how they knew Harry was at the Weasley's. And then, not long after we got here, they began snooping around this place. The Ministry is theirs now, and they also have Ollivander… I don't think there are too many safe places left. I think with those two resources they could still have the Trace on Harry. And probably the rest of us as well. It's time to be more stringent than ever with our words and wards. Don't say his name. I know Dumbledore does it, but just don't. It has some sort of link to him from any nearby Death Eaters. My medallions work fairly similarly, except they aren't burned into your arm."

She tossed Remus a DA medallion, from her bag.

"Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's mum told us the family was safe." Harry spoke. She knew that wasn't totally true, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"Well, Kingsley saved us," said Lupin. "Thanks to his warning most of the wedding guests were able to Disapparate before they arrived."

"Were they Death Eaters or Ministry people?" interjected Hermione.

"A mixture; but to all intents and purposes they're the same thing now," said Lupin. "There were about a dozen of them, but they didn't know you were there, Harry. Kingsley heard a rumor that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it's true, he didn't give you away."

Hermione looked at Ron and Harry; their expressions reflected the mingled shock and gratitude she felt. She had never liked Scrimgeour much, but if what Lupin said was true, the man's final act had been to try to protect Harry. And, by extension, Hermione.

"The Death Eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom," Lupin went on. "They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get too close, and then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours. They were trying to get information on you, Harry, but of course nobody apart from the Order knew that you had been there."

"At the same time that they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. No deaths," he added quickly, forestalling the question, "but they were rough. They burned down Dedalus Diggle's house, but as you know he wasn't there, and they used the Cruciatus Curse on Tonks' family. Again, trying to find out where you went after you visited them. They're all right. Shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay."

"The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?" Harry asked.

"What you've got to realize, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now," said Lupin. "They've got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we'd cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they'd come."

"And are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Harry's whereabouts out of people?" asked Hermione, an edge to her voice.

"Well," Lupin said. He hesitated, then pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Here," he said, pushing it across the table to Harry, "you'll know sooner or later anyway. That's their pretext for going after you."

Hermione peered across the table at the paper spread across it, headline flashing.

**WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE BREAK-IN AT HOGWARTS.**

Ron and Hermione gave roars of outrage, but Harry said nothing. He pushed the newspaper away. Luna looked at him in concern.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Lupin said.

"So Death Eaters have taken over the Daily Prophet too?" asked Hermione furiously.

Lupin nodded.

"But surely people realize what's going on?"

"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," said Lupin.

"The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."

"Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister of Magic?" asked Ron.

Hermione and Lupin laughed.

"He doesn't need to, Ron. Effectively, he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk at the Ministry? His puppet, Thicknesse, is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort free to extend his power beyond the Ministry." Lupin spoke for her. "Naturally, many people have deduced what has happened: There has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is the point: They whisper. They daren't confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust; they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear."

Hermione thought, 'Yes, now that he has shown his hand, he can't very well be the Minister openly.'

"And this dramatic change in Ministry policy," said Harry, "involves warning the Wizarding world against me instead of Voldemort?"

'Naturally,' she thought. 'What better way to incite discord among the people?'

"That's certainly a part of it," said Lupin, "and it is a masterstroke. Now that even Hogwarts isn't impenetrable, you "the Boy Who Lived" were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in letting the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but has sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you."

"Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns."

Lupin pointed at the Daily Prophet.

"Look at page two."

Hermione turned the pages with much the same expression of distaste she had when handling Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Muggle-born Register!" she read aloud. "'The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called "Muggle-borns", the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets.

"'Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force.

"'The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.'"

"People won't let this happen," said Ron.

"It is happening, Ron," said Lupin. "Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."

"But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic?" said Ron. "It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"

"I know," said Lupin. "Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close Wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment."

Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, "What about people with a clear link to a Pure-blood ancestor, though their family has been muggle for so long? Doesn't that disprove the magic stealing theory and set up a possible magic recycling theory in it's place?"

Hermione nodded approvingly, Ron was beginning to think for himself.

"Ron, as we're on the run with Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was going back to school it would be different. As well as the fact that it's obviously wrong, people are just too scared to say so. What's Voldemort planning for Hogwarts?" she asked Lupin.

"He still hasn't managed to get in there," Lupin replied, "The Board of Governors are all under Imperius, likely by Lucius Malfoy, but Hogwarts is standing firm as long as Dumbledore holds office. Hogwarts won't let them in, she has a will of her own, you know."

"I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Harry, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore has given you a mission."

"He has," Harry replied, "and Ron and Hermione are in on it, and they're coming with me."

"Can you confide in me what the mission is?"

"I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore hasn't told you, I don't think I can."

"I thought you'd say that," said Lupin, looking disappointed. "But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to."

"I think we shall stay here, as long as we can," Hermione spoke, "That is all the protection we should need."

"And if Severus shows up under cover of darkness and makes off with you lot?" Lupin asked.

Hermione shook her head, "We are safer here than anywhere else. We will keep up the necessary wards against him. I have special training in that, from the man himself. If anyone is prepared to deal with him, it's me. I have the best shot."

"But what about Tonks?" she asked.

"What about her?" said Lupin.

"Well," said Hermione, frowning, "you're married! How does she feel about you going away with us?"

"Tonks will be perfectly safe," said Lupin, "She'll be at her parents' house."

There was something strange in Lupin's tone, it was almost cold. There was also something odd in the idea of Tonks remaining hidden at her parents' house; she was, after all, a member of the Order and, as far as Hermione knew, was likely to want to be in the thick of the action.

"The same house that they broke into... Remus you can't seriously think to leave her there." Hermione objected. "Remus," said Hermione tentatively, "is everything alright... you know... between you and-"

"Everything is fine, thank you," said Lupin pointedly.

Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lupin said, with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, "Tonks is going to have a baby."

"Oh, how wonderful!" squealed Hermione.

"Excellent!" said Ron enthusiastically.

"Congratulations," said Harry.

Luna smiled absently, "I wonder if it will be a metamorphmagus like her?"

Lupin gave an artificial smile that was more like a grimace, then said, "So... do you accept my offer? Will four become five? You four are only just of age, it might help to have someone who is older and more experienced than you. And I must tell you that I believe we are facing magic many of us have never encountered or imagined."

Ron and Hermione both looked at Harry.

"Just- just to be clear," he said. "You want to leave Tonks at her parents' house and come away with us?"

"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," said Lupin. He spoke with a finality bordering on indifference: "Harry, I'm sure James would have wanted me to stick with you."

"Well," said Harry slowly, "I'm not. I'm pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren't sticking with your own kid, actually."

Lupin's face drained of color. The temperature in the kitchen might have dropped ten degrees. Ron stared around the room as though he had been bidden to memorize it, while Hermione's eyes swiveled backward and forward from Harry to Lupin. Maybe Harry could get through to him, where she could not.

"You don't understand," said Lupin at last.

"Explain, then," said Harry.

Lupin swallowed.

"I- I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against my better judgment and have regretted it very much ever since."

"I see," said Harry, "so you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?"

Lupin sprang to his feet: His chair toppled over backward, and he glared at them so fiercely that Hermione saw, for the first time ever, the shadow of the wolf upon his human face.

"Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!"

Lupin kicked aside the chair he had overturned.

"You have only ever seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore's protection at Hogwarts! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done?

Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child- the child!"

Lupin actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged.

"My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it; how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

"Remus!" whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. "Don't say that! How could any child be ashamed of you?"

"Oh, I don't know, Hermione," said Harry. "I'd be pretty ashamed of him."

Lupin looked as though Harry had hit him.

"If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad," Harry said, "what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father's in the Order? My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?"

"Harry," Luna spoke, calming him, "Lupin, you must not think that you would pass on your affliction. It's passed on during acts of violence. You and Tonks, that was an act of love."

Everyone nodded, and Remus seemed to deflate before them. "I- I'm sorry. I was just so scared for her… for them. I didn't want to hurt them by being there."

"But it's where you belong," Luna serenely spoke, "Family, love, friends. That's what he doesn't understand, am I right? Don't let him drag you away from that, not now."

"You're right, you are all right…" Remus left, his cloaks shabbily swishing behind him. Hermione staring after him sadly, wondering just why the world had to make that man believe he was a danger to the people he loved.


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

**The Royal Dream**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

******Did you know that, in Great Britain, it is still illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour, as it has been since 1313?**

* * *

Phineas Nigellus Black was now in residence on the intersecting wall to the one Mrs. Black took up most of, and between them stood a wooden stool. On the stool was a stack of newspapers, mostly the Daily Prophet. The newspapers detailed the grisly second coming of Lord Voldemort. Hermione would sit and read them after everyone else had a turn. She preferred to spend as little time around Ron as possible, but he made it clear that he thought of this as his chance to couple up with her. She found a new hiding place daily to sit, and get some peace and quiet. She didn't mind Phineas and Mrs. Blacks low-toned conversations.

"You're getting to look a bit peaky, Hermione dear; when's the last time you went out of the house?" Mrs. Black asked, Phineas nodded in agreement.

"A few months," She answered absently, "The boys always insist that we not go out." She turned a page in the Dark Arts book Severus had given her. She wasn't really reading it, as she already knew it by heart.

Mrs. Black harrumphed. "Idiot boys, ordering someone of your breeding around. I don't understand why you allow it."

"It suits my purposes, as you well know. If Ron is out of the house, I can message our dark friend more often." Hermione spoke, not mentioning his name so as not to invite disaster. "He's close now."

Phineas smirked, "As befits a true Slytherin."

Hermione smiled softly, and nodded. "I miss him."

"Of course you do, dear." Mrs. Black consoled. "Any word from Dumbledore, Phineas?"

"He's always too busy to give a report to me for those trapped at this house." Phineas sniffed delicately with derision. "But I have heard a few things, in passing, little things."

"Don't make us wait." Hermione spoke, underlining a sentence with her finger. She could almost feel him when she traced over his writing.

"They are planning to retake the Ministry." Phineas let that news sink in for a moment before continuing, "They still have no plan to raid the Malfoy residence, though they much suspect that is where young Ginevra Weasley is being held captive."

"I hope Draco is doing his best to make sure she remains unharmed." Hermione sighed, "Within reason, of course."

There was a silent pause as they all realized that even should Draco manage to get her free, it would be disastrous for him and his family. She wondered if he could at least make it bearable for her… until they could get her out.

She felt her medallion warm, and she took it into the library. None of the others ever ventured in here. Not even Luna. She sat in his chair, and looked at the message:

**It's at Bellatrix Black's vault.**

**Will secure it and then meet you,**

**and Albus, in his office.**

She thought of a reply:

**Remember to leave a copy.**

**And then add some dark magic on that.**

**It will confuse her and mask it as a fake.**

She didn't receive a reply, but she knew her message had gone through. He would message her when it was time to go back to Hogwarts. She had managed to talk Harry out of going to visit the Bagshot woman. He now spoke with Dumbledore about the rumors about his family in person. She had Luna there to insist that he be reasonable, and it seemed to work when it was Luna. Ron found Luna to be a more worthy opponent in Chess than either her or Harry, so they were often in the study. Harry spent most of the time practicing with her, silent spells, or meditating. With his emotions now more or less under control, he was much better at silent spell casting. But his dodging and reflexes were still a bit shoddy.

"Think of it as a fluid." Hermione spoke, as she moved around Harry's spells, "The flow of the battle is dictated by the forces of aggression and deception."

"Hermione, I don't know if you have noticed, but deception is not really my strong suit." Harry said snarkily.

"Aggression is trying to hurt them, deception is having them hurt themselves by moving out of position. Losing the upper hand if you will."

Harry nodded, but she could tell that he still didn't really get it.

* * *

"What has our prisoner been saying, Mr. Gold?" Hissed an alien voice, "Anything?"

Aurelius Gold stepped back from the huddled figure of Sybill Trelawney on the cold stone floor. He spoke without fear, "I've written them out for you. Would you like me to recite them?"

"Please," The Dark Lord's voice more snake-like than ever. "From the beginning."

"The gloomy lion must not object with the sarcastic empress. He shall not dissemble with the arrogant queen in the spring. A recovery must not occur and the cold-hearted mother will not wince with the compassionate traitor on a hill before the coming of wisdom. A defeat will not happen in a forest in a time of temptation. He will finally demur with the fanatical summoner at the coming of good. A mystery must take place with the capricious temptress."

"Wait." The Dark Lord spoke with chilling eagerness, "That one, what does that one mean?"

Gold repeated, "A mystery must take place with the capricious temptress."

"I know that! But what does it mean?"

Trelawney started giggling hysterically. "It means that it's a mystery. And it's a mystery because it means."

The Dark Lord raised his wand to cast Crucio.

"She's not going to be useful to you if you rattle her brains too much, My Lord. But My Lord knows best." Gold spoke genially.

The Dark Lord lowered his wand, and spoke with a chill in his voice, "What else did she say?"

"An act of kindness will not take place and he shall fear." Gold looked up, "And he shall fear… She just kept repeating that."

The Dark Lords eyes narrowed. "If she says anything that's actually of use… Keep me informed."

Gold nodded, glad to see the back of him.

"Sybill, you must try harder to come up with something. I don't know how much longer he will want to keep you if you don't start laying golden eggs."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore examined the cup. It wasn't a particularly ostentatious thing, but it was radiating a significant amount of dark magic. He looked up at his two co-conspirators, Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. One a man, lithely built; the other a girl barely of age, with a certain permanent innocence about her appearance. As different as two people could be, and yet more similar to each other than to anyone else. He had watched as they fell slowly in love. He could have prevented it, but he saw some potential in their relationship to help solidify Severus' need to help in the war. That had paid off tonight; Severus had gone above and beyond to retrieve the Horcrux. What was originally going to be Harry's mission had turned into Severus and Hermione's. They willingly put themselves in danger to stop a man that, it was entirely possible, would have risen them into quite lofty positions of power.

"Once this is done, we move onto the last three… the most important three." Albus spoke wearily.

Hermione and Severus only nodded, preparing to cast Miss Granger's fantastic spell. Her spell alone qualified her for N.E.W.T.'s in DADA, Charms, and Arithmancy.

Watching them cast the spell together, along with his help, made him realize that he had worried for nothing when it came to their relationship. He had been an old fool then, expecting her to be fickle, and him to rush the girl into something she wasn't ready for. Their relationship was magnetic. His negativity attracted her positivity, and vice-versa.

The soul mist faded away before their eyes.

Miss Granger remained awake, but they all felt the strain of it on their magic. Albus had to sit down, feeling a bit winded.

Severus was leaning on the back of Hermione's chair, his prodigious nose nestled in her untamed hair. She suddenly cried out, clutching her middle. Albus immediately called Poppy through the Floo. The matron was with them in a matter of moments, fussing over Miss Granger, and examining runes in the air after she had cast the diagnostic charms.

Albus had never seen Miss Granger quite so unsettled as when her condition was made known. Severus had become pale as a ghost. He kept up a steady mantra.

"Are you sure?"

* * *

Draco almost shuffled past her cell, but stopped when he heard her whimper, "He's not coming for me."

Draco lifeless gray eyes turned to regard the girl on the mattress on the floor. She'd been stripped of her clothes and wand, all she had was a thin, coarse blanket. Her hair wasn't as shiny down here as he remembered it being at Hogwarts, that was a lifetime ago.

"You know that, don't you? He won't be told." The girl shivered, clutching the flimsy blanket around her shoulders. "Even if he knew… I'm nothing to him. I'm just Ron's little sister."

Draco couldn't even manage a half-hearted smirk at her distress. He just kept staring, transfixed by her honesty. He remembered when they had brought her into this cell. She had refused to speak to anyone, all this time. And now she spoke to him.

"I heard you have a hippogriff with the same name as me." The girl looked up, her eyes like deadly flints. They pierced him with their intensity. "It must be a real laugh to have me in a cage."

Draco's head shook itself no, without him really thinking about it.

She gripped the blanket with white-knuckled anger. "Captured because of him. Because everyone knows how I feel- felt about him. Because I'm the perfect representation of the damsel in distress. Well, I'm bloody tired of it."

Draco was shocked. What was she saying?

The blanket dropped to her lap. Draco averted his gaze.

"Why bother? You've already seen everything… when they took me in here." The girl indicated her body with the sweep of her hand.

He closed his silvery eyes with a grimace, "It's not polite. I mustn't stoop to their level."

"I'm tired of this… I tire of being the victim. Draco?" The girl spoke his name, he couldn't close his ears to her. "Look at me."

He shuddered. "Mustn't. Shouldn't. She wouldn't like it."

"I'm cold." The girl was reaching through the bars at him, blankets draped across her back and shoulders. "Draco, please?"

Her hand reached out and squeezed his. He looked down at it, confused by its alien presence. She pulled him closer to the cage. Her breasts were separated by a cold metal bar against her sternum. He didn't understand it.

"Touch me?" The girl asked. He tried not to look at her, but she seemed to be everywhere. His head wouldn't turn from her skin, flush against the metal of the cage. He felt his hand move as she lifted it to her breast. The cold had caused the nipple to become hard, and it grazed against the soft of his palm.

"This is wrong. I shouldn't-" He tried to pull his hand back but she captured it and sucked his index finger into her mouth. His brain short-circuited.

He felt her reach for him, and he moved closer to her on instinct. "Ginny."

"I love you, Draco."

He woke up in his well furnished bed, alone, with the evidence of his dream marring his pyjamas. "Oh, I _am_ going to **hell**."

* * *

Hermione was on strict bed-rest after her 'little scare', as she had come to calling it. She was to wait a week before doing any more magic, or she would endanger herself. She placed a hand over her middle, there was also the matter of the new life growing inside of her. She hadn't yet wrapped her head around it. But Poppy had done the tests, and they were all positive for pregnancy. She and Severus had been careful every time, which she told Poppy, but she assumed she must have slipped up once with the potion or charm. Severus had looked floored. She remembered his strange half-hopeful, half-disbelieving look as he looked at her.

How was she going to break it to the rest of them?

Getting pregnant out of wedlock wasn't exactly common in the Wizarding World. She thought she had best do it all at once, like ripping off a band-aid. She looked at their confused faces, Ron and Harry's at least. Luna just looked vaguely curious.

"What's this all about, Hermione?" Ron asked with concern, moving to take her hand. "You went to see Dumbledore and you come back injured."

She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not exactly injured. I overexerted my magic while it was busy taking care of someone else. I'm having a baby."

"What?!" Ron shouted, standing up quickly to loom over her. "Who? When? You can't just drop a bomb like that on us Hermione."

Harry pulled Ron back down into his chair. "She's had a hard enough time without you shouting at her Ron. Take your time, Hermione."

Luna just looked at her like a particularly perplexing puzzle. She hadn't said a word about Hermione falling pregnant.

Hermione closed her eyes, her hand fluttering over her stomach protectively. "The who and when are both complicated. I can't tell you who, it's a secret essential to the war. And I can't tell you when because I have no idea when it could have happened. We had been exceedingly careful. There should have been no way for me to have become pregnant, and yet… Here I am. I can tell you that I love the father very much. I've loved him for quite some time, it seems like since I hit puberty I have held feelings for him."

"It's not Malfoy, is it?" Harry asked, a slight tone of anger fissuring his voice.

She pushed back the sweaty hair from her forehead. "No," She spoke icily, "And you don't understand that Draco had no choice."

"What would you know about that?" Harry's voice rose in anger.

Hermione threw the blankets off of her and reached for her water, drinking it down greedily, and then slamming the glass down, back on the nightstand. "Everything Harry. I know everything about that. Did you think his best friend since first year wouldn't know what he was up to? I knew, and I allowed it, because he had no other choice. It was between the certainty of his mum dying or the possibility of other people dying. Draco made the choice he was best able to live with because he loves his mother more than anything. His actions weren't evil. They were in protection of his family."

"If not Malfoy, then who?" Harry scowled, "Why can't you tell us? Whose identity must remain a secret for the war?"

Luna came to sit closer to her, "You both are upsetting her, can't you see?" Luna waved her hand around Hermione's head, probably indicating the nargles.

Ron stomped out of the room in a huff, but Harry stayed, looking quite contrite. "I'm here for you Hermione. Just like you've always been there for me. I'll trust you to know what's best on this matter. Just… just come to me if you need help with this mystery guy. I don't want him running off like Remus tried to do to Tonks." Harry looked equal parts sad and angry. "I don't like to see fathers not there for their kids. Not if they can help it."

Hermione nodded, taking Harry's hand. "I get it."

Harry smiled, glancing up at Luna, and then back to Hermione. "Now you, Fleur, and Tonks are all pregnant at once. Fleur just announced it to us, when we went to her and Bill's house. Well, it's more of a cottage on the sea, really."

Hermione smiled wearily, and said with no small amount of sarcasm, "Great, we can form a club."

* * *

At first Arthur thought he was still on the floor of the Ministry of Magic, but then he could begin to feel again. He was on a bed, a hospital bed to be precise. He could hear Molly crying, but he couldn't move his arm to comfort her. He tried, but his muscles weren't responding. He concentrated on the sound of Molly, he had to get to her. He had to make her smile, and stop her tears. He could hear her speaking to him through some cottony substance that seemed to be in his ears without actually being there.

"Oh, Arthur… It's just terrible. Percy's under Imperius… He helped kill the Minister. Ron is off on a mission… not going to school like he should. Ginny… Our beautiful daughter… Ginny is captured by the Death Eaters. Our family has been in shambles… I can't help but think if you only came back to us… everything would work itself out."

He made a strange hissing groan with his throat. He was trying to tell Molly it was okay now, that he was here. She stopped talking and ran out of the room, maybe to get a doctor, but Arthur fell back into oblivion.

* * *

Ron was out of the house now most days, his whole family visited his Dad constantly. Ron had to go under Harry's cloak as he was still supposed to be sick with something highly contagious. Hermione was glad for him, and more importantly for her. She could call Severus to the Library, and he would come, without anyone the wiser. A few months had passed since her diagnosis. She was now sporting a little bump. Severus hadn't tried to run from her, but she knew that he must go where he was needed, now more than ever they needed an inside man. If anything, she was having to remind him that he must occasionally leave her.

"When this is over. We will go away to your parents, return their memories, and set up home in Australia for awhile, until I am cleared of all charges against me. Perhaps it would be safer down there anyway, until all the fanatical Death Eaters are caught." Severus stroked his hands through her hair, and she felt content.

The library was dark; she didn't want anyone to see a light under the door and come looking for her in here. The wards were all up. She was safe. She sat upon his lap as he massaged her aching back. "Mmmhmm."

He chuckled, pulling slightly on one of her curls. "I understand, there will be a time for plans later."

She nodded, and wriggled on his lap. "I'm happy that you have begun to see things my way." She pressed her back into his chest; he was breathing solidly. She closed her eyes as he lifted her shirt above her head.

He placed his hands over her breasts, and spoke in a deep rumble, "Are these sore, as well? I could massage them for you."

He began to lightly maneuver them, but they were extremely sensitive, so that even that much was somewhere between pleasure and pain. She relaxed into him, nuzzling his neck. "Mmm. Yes, there is time enough for plans later. Much later."

* * *

By mid-winter Arthur Weasley was back with his family. He was still on bed rest, but he was able to move around with assistance. They got shot of Ron, who wanted to be back with his family instead of whiling away the hours at Grimmauld Place. Ever since her announcement, he had been strangely chilly with her. Harry and Luna had come to accept it, why couldn't he? Not only that, but Harry was basically trying to do everything for her. He cooked, he brought her the paper, he'd find her new books to read from the muggle shops… Luna kept her busy, when she was between visits with Severus, by talking about some creatures of likely implausibility. And Ron had sulked whenever he saw her. She wasn't sad that he left.

Although, now she really was the third wheel in the house. Although, with Harry and Luna, it was barely noticeable. They didn't much do couple-like things.

She wandered into the kitchen for breakfast; Harry was already up making pancakes and bacon. Luna had her face behind a copy of the Quibbler. Her father had gone into hiding, but was still printing the truest news out there, while the Death Eaters had control of the Daily Prophet.

"Morning, Hermione," Harry spoke jovially as he flipped the bacon.

"Thank you for making breakfast, Harry." She spoke as she sat down heavily beside Luna. "Heard from Ron lately?"

Harry nodded, and spoke, "He sends his regards. His father is doing much better. His magic is still weak, but they have hope it will recover in due time."

"The Order broke in and freed the captured Muggleborns," Luna spoke, "So there is some good news to be had."

"Fleur and Tonks want to come over today, have a combination baby shower or something. Most likely just girl talk." Harry spoke, indicating the Floo.

They had their own separate network put up for Order members. It had helped keep the Order functioning. Dumbledore had set it up. She was glad to have him around for that, at least. "Alright, will you be okay, staying here, during that?"

Harry handed her her plate, and rolled his eyes. "Hermione, I think I can handle three pregnant women having a little girl chat. It's not like there aren't other rooms I can go to."

Harry had to end up eating his words. By the end of it, he was sitting, staring glassy eyed out of the window in the study. "There are just some things men are not supposed to know." He shuddered, "And now, I know."

* * *

Spring had finally come, and Hermione felt that she was as big as a house. Not only was she pregnant, Poppy had confirmed that she was carrying twins. Molly was ecstatic, of course, regaling her with stories about her own pregnancy with Fred and George. So far, no one had pressured her to reveal the secret of who the father was, thankfully. Poppy knew, but the Matron kept her patients' secrets.

The day had finally come for her delivery, there had been a few false starts but she knew this time was the real deal. She walked around the room, walking through the pain, as Molly coached her to relax and let gravity do its work. Although Molly didn't use the word gravity. Poppy kept handing her a potion to drink, every hour on the hour. It tasted minty, so it wasn't entirely horrible. Luna kept up with handing her a cool hand towel to put on her forehead and neck. And then when Poppy nodded, Molly conjured a strange looking chair, it had a sideways U shape. She was moved over to it and her nightgown lifted clear of the area. Molly set behind her waiting with her hands ready to catch beneath the chair. And then Poppy began to sing and wave her wand around Hermione, it was a beautiful, wordless song, and her pain lessened until it was non existent.

Distantly she heard Molly ask her to push. Luna was also encouraging her to push. So she bore down until she felt it. Something came out of her. Luna took it and laid it in a small bassinet after cleaning it of blood. Molly must have severed the cord. Now they kept her going until at last, the other twin came out.

After cleaning her up, and handing her several more potions, she was allowed to see her babies. They helped her move over to them, and she looked inside to see two small things, both with shocks of dark hair, somewhere between brown and black. And blueish eyes, they would change with time. "Fraternal," She spoke, noticing they were a boy and a girl. "Although they look almost identical except for the gender."

"Have you thought of names?" Mrs. Weasley spoke, setting her down on the bed and handing her the one wrapped in blue, as she cuddled the one in pink. Hermione didn't much care what either of them wore, color wise, but she knew for some people it was important.

She stroked a pinkish cheek, their eyes were puffy and red, and they looked wrinkled with age even though they were newly born. "No, I haven't. I was going to let them show me in their own time who they are. My parents would probably insist on something elaborate that references a play. I don't think the father would want them named after his own parents. So, I thought it couldn't hurt to wait a bit and see what kind of personality they have before deciding."

Luna peered at them curiously, "They look a bit like…"

Hermione gave Luna a desperate plea to not speak the name in front of Molly Weasley, of all people, with her eyes. Luna finished, "Harry, a bit."

Hermione sighed, thankful that that crisis had been averted. "Which it isn't. You can ask Poppy."

Poppy nodded, while checking her and the babies over with diagnostic charms. "Not Harry Potter, no… Hermione, these babies have an extraordinary amount of magic for newborns. No wonder your magic kept running low. Or, extremely high. They were sharing it with you and playing with it."

Hermione snorted, "Along with my bladder."

Poppy looked at her seriously, "I mean it. These babies already have a detectable magical signature, that doesn't usually happen. Which is why we have to wait for them to show signs of it when they get older."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I have babies who can perform magic?"

Molly gave her a sympathetic smile, "It's bad enough when they are older. Babies with magic… now that's a scary thought. Fred and George were a nightmare as babies, and that was without the magic."

Hermione looked down at their innocent faces, and felt a slight chill. She knew how bad she had been as a child; her parents had always warned her that someday she would get a child as bad or worse than her. She hoped they weren't going to be right.


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

**The Royal Journey**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

"**Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia."**

**- Charles M. Schulz**

* * *

The green light flashed across the alabaster face of the monster, in his red eyes was a reflection of the surprise on the wizened man's face. Beside him, Bella was gleefully dancing and singing a version of 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead'. The wand, the wand that he had been searching for, was finally within his grasp. He picked it up and called down lightning from the sky, causing the enemies to scatter from the field. His eyes swiveled to see the boy, Harry Potter, crying over the old man's corpse. It would be so easy to end him. But he must be kept alive, he was a valuable vessel for a piece of his soul.

"Restrain him, Bella."

Bella tied the boy tightly with ropes from her wand, cackling madly as she did. Voldemort looked past the boy to see the girl, her hair flying madly out behind her, and she was standing defiantly. She looked like a dark Valkyrie.

He hissed as she raised one dark brow and pointed at the restrained boy. She snapped her fingers, and the boy disappeared before his eyes. "Do we really need hostages for this?"

Voldemort saw that her back up had erected strong wards around her. They shimmered as she stood defiantly on the hill, Hogwarts behind her.

"I believe you wanted to speak with me- you who is a self styled lord- am I correct?" The young woman queried, infuriatingly calm for someone who stood before him, Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort kept Bella and the rest from attacking; he would have his time to show these people who was superior. But first, he must talk to the only threat to his power base. If he could convince her to work with him, he might have a more stable power base from which to work on the rest of the world.

"I think I shall set the tone of this engagement. What hope do you have of defeating me? You can see that the most logical choice, the best choice, is to join me. I can teach you secrets arcane that will take you farther than you have ever been. I know you have enjoyed your tutelage under my most loyal servant, Severus Snape. But I can teach you far greater things than even he knows. We can rule together, you and I, truly immortal and all powerful. What do these weak-willed fools have to offer you?" Voldemort could see that she was being swayed by his most expertly said points. As he thought she would be.

She smiled coldly, and he could see the sign of the snake in her. Suddenly, she was right next to him. "Very well, I accept your proposal." Her eyes were like liquid gold as they twinkled up at him. "But I will not take your mark. I am a Queen, not a servant."

He knew she would say yes. He recognized her thirst for power and control, for he knew it well himself. He was only too willing to let her negotiate her freedom, for now. She held her wand mere inches from his chest. He could feel the power radiating through it and her. Such power that he was very nearly intoxicated by it. "Severus Snape?" She asked the cloaked forms, "Your Queen has need of you."

He stepped obediently forward, head tilted down slightly in reverence. He was impressed with his servant even more, how did the man make her trust him? Or did she? Voldemort was puzzled by this for a few moments as Severus Snape came to stand beside them.

The enemy side was screaming, but not dropping the barriers, or attempting to curse them. Probably too afraid they would hit her. He ignored them, as he was focused on the small thing before him that commanded so much power and respect.

"You have need of me?" Severus spoke in a cold drawl. He was never one for the prostrating that the others did. Voldemort held him in the highest esteem out of all of his Death Eaters.

Her arm reached out and snagged Severus' hand. She clasped it familiarly, and he wondered if they were involved. It was of no consequence to him, as he hadn't had a sexual feeling in his body for quite some time, and he didn't miss it. "I'm ready."

Voldemort popped out of the Forest, where they had been previously, and into the Malfoy residence. He was soon joined by the girl and Severus. The other Death Eaters had moved to take Hogwarts while it was empty of a Headmaster. Voldemort traipsed over to his favored high backed chair and sat down in it, gesturing to the seats on either side of him. He smiled at her, she was looking at the Malfoy dining room with a slightly curious expression. She smiled when her eyes traveled back to him, not many were calm enough around him to do that. It wasn't the simpering smile of Bella. It was the smile of someone who believed herself to be his equal, or possibly even greater.

Severus was looking at her, in a slightly unguarded way. He had never seen his servant look quite that way before. "She is special to you, I take it, Severus."

The girl smiled, unafraid of him as he sat before her, with the wand taken from her late Headmaster. She spoke before Severus had a chance to answer, "He is the father of my children. We are bonded."

The Dark Lord barely had time to digest the news before she snapped her fingers, like she had done before, and before him were two nearly identical babies. They looked a few months old at most, but they were levitating. "Are you doing this?" He asked in a cold, high voice.

She shook her head no. "Trust me, I wish they would lay down every once in a while."

"May I introduce to you, my lord," Severus spoke coolly, and clearly, "Wolfram Granger and Sparrow Granger. Crown Prince and Princess."

"She'll put anything in her mouth," The mother spoke, "So she got the name Sparrow."

When the little girl's name was said by her mother, her black as night eyes turned to look at her. The little girl waved her arms and legs, and her mother's hair danced merrily around her head. "Sparrow," The mother warned in a patient voice, "Mummy's talking with the Dark Lord just now."

Wolfram was looking him straight in the eye, curiously, his own eyes that liquid gold like his mother. His expression was iconic Severus, though. "As you can see, Lord Voldemort, I am not prepared to make this a true split of power. I suggest I remain the political head. While you remain… doing what you are best at. We both know that if I came out against you, most of your pureblood base would leave you. You are the heir of Slytherin, and while that is somewhat impressive… you knew it was not enough. That's why you proposed this truce with me. That's why you wanted me tethered to one of your supporters with the call of Dark Magic. Of course, it worked a little too well, as you saw with Harry Potter."

"How did you disapparate him like that?" Voldemort asked, truly curious for once about magics he had never believed possible until the moment he had seen them.

She smiled, setting her wand on the table between them. Unafraid of him being able to take it or destroy it. "It's a little quirk of the wand, and my magic, while it is linked to me."

She held her palm out and the wand flew back into it, like a wordless and wandless accio. He was honestly jealous of her power, a power he couldn't take by force. His eyes slitted as he thought of the injustice that he not be able to do something, if he just worked hard enough at it.

The girl child, Sparrow, was making spit bubbles that took the shape of animals, and giggling as they ran through the air, before popping. He wondered if he could kill the woman and just raise the children. But he didn't like how alert they seemed. He didn't like his chances of getting them to bond to him enough that he could control them.

"I could do the same to you… I could put you in a volcano's magma chamber… Or at the bottom of a frozen lake." Her eyes were flashing, there was something dark coiling around her. Her magic scented the air. "But enough of threats. What do you have to offer me? Something Severus couldn't teach me."

He felt backed into a corner. Although he was at the head of the table; he felt he was very much in her court. As he began to tell her, all went black.

The wards on Malfoy Manor dropped and Order members swarmed the place, letting out prisoners, and stunning Death Eaters caught off guard. The real Aurors, not Imperiused, took them off to Azkaban quickly. Hermione paid that action no mind. She had killed the snake and now stood before the only piece of Voldemort left in the world. He was disarmed, and his magic suppressed by a toxin Severus had administered. The Aurors moved to stun Severus, and she blocked it with a wave of her hand. "He is to be fully pardoned, my orders. He was essential in taking down the Dark Lord."

"Yes, ma'am."

She noticed Voldemort blinking blearily awake, trussed up like a Christmas ham. He wriggled for a moment, before realizing it was useless. "You betrayed me?! Severus?"

"To betray, one would've had to have been loyal at some point, my lord." He absolutely dripped derision into every word.

"Give me one good reason I should let you live. The Aurors have told me it's my prerogative if you are simply jailed for your crimes, or killed." Hermione tapped her wand against her thigh with impatience. "Make it a good one."

Voldemort glared up at her vehemently, "I should have killed you while I had the chance."

She laughed at him, mockingly, and spoke condescendingly, "No, you never did have the chance. You only thought you did." She sighed, "But I don't want to kill you."

Voldemort's red eyes bugged out of his head.

"But I will do something else. I will show you to the door of the world. The place mortals cannot go behind. And you shall fear." Hermione spoke coldly, her eyes staring hard into his. "I will show you no mercy, though I will not kill you… you will die."

Hermione and Severus stood together and intoned her spell over a frightened Voldemort. At the end, his soul had left the body that was never really his, and dissipated before their very eyes. The body turned to ash, the magic no longer there to sustain it.

She turned to Severus, smiling widely at his unbelieving stare at the now dead Dark Lord. He quickly rolled up his coat and shirt, to reveal the most faded of scars, the black magic gone from it. Her finger trailed down it, glad to not feel its wrongness on his skin any longer. "So," Hermione laughingly spoke, "Australia?"

"I have the portkey, grab the twins." Severus spoke, rolling his shirt sleeve back down.

Hermione snapped her fingers, and snatched them both out of the air. She watched Severus pull an empty bottle from his robes and hold it out. She placed the babies' hands on first. Hers came next, sliding over theirs in a protective way. Severus wrapped his other hand around all three of theirs, and they were off, through space, and away from there.

Once the swirling stopped, she took in the view of a simple street, with simple houses up and down it. Severus led the way, his coat billowing behind him. It was winter here. She felt the chill only peripherally. Before she knew it, they were standing on a particular stoop. Severus knocked and shushed the babies with one long finger to his lips. They complied, stopping all magical shenanigans for the moment, miraculously.

Her father answered the door, his smile uncertain; it was quite dark out. "May I help you folks?"

Hermione nodded, looking tearful. It wasn't an act, she was truly happy to see him again. She heard her mum call out, "Who's at the door, Wendell?"

"Our car broke down. We saw your lights on and wondered if you might lend us your phone to call someone." Severus spoke smoothly. His attire went unnoticed as he was ushered in the house, the two babies setting her parents at ease that they were people to be trusted. Hermione took in the house, it was nothing like the one she had called home. She was seated in an uncomfortable, modern looking couch, with her babies lying calmly down beside her. Her mum set down on the other side, and began cooing over them, as Severus worked his magic on her dad to make him remember.

"What are their names? Oh, they are just so precious, a perfect mix of the two of you." Her mum fawned over the babies.

She smiled, happy that she approved of them… even though she wasn't in her right mind yet. "Sparrow, the girl, and Wolfram, the boy."

"It is done," Severus spoke, as he sat down across from them. He looked deep into her mother's eyes and spoke lowly, "Legilimens."

Her mum shook as her memories came flooding back; at the end she passed out, exhausted, and Severus floated her unto her bed, where her father already lay. And they waited for them to wake up. Which took until the sun broke over the horizon on the next day.

* * *

Hermione received the third degree for tampering with her parents' lives and memories without their consent. The first hour was a seemingly never-ending tirade about her taking the choice out of their hands.

"I had to, Mum!" She finally broke, screaming, with tears running down her cheeks. "I had to… if you had known what was coming… you would have fought it… And you wouldn't have been safe. You had to be completely out of the picture. The both of you." Her hands were clenched tightly at her side. Severus stood behind her, hands on her shoulders, trying to soothe her.

"She's right, Jean." Severus spoke, calmly, "If you know it's coming, an advanced memory modification like Hermione performed, could have been compromised by your subconscious fighting it."

"And you!" Jean Granger pointed her finger straight past Hermione, and at Severus' shocked face. "You told us you were taking precautions, and then you show up on our doorstep with twins! You haven't even married her, you- you- ugh! You know what you are."

Severus sighed, smiling slightly now, "I wanted to wait. It wouldn't have felt official without you and John there. As for the twins, magic was apparently at play. Sometimes, all the methods fail; with your muggle prophylactics, is this not the case? It's the same thing."

"I think they get it, Jean. They know we are angry with them. But they made the best choices they could, given everything." Her dad spoke up for them, and she brightly smiled at him. "I'm guessing you two- er, four now, I guess- aren't just here to give us back our memories."

Her smile faltered, and Severus spoke, "Unfortunately, there is a bit of unrest still back home. We thought it might be best to vacation here for a while until it all blows over. Also, you might be able to get to know your grandchildren."

"Well," Her dad let his hand encompass all of the small house they were living in, "Our house is your house. We have jobs and friends here now. We certainly wouldn't want to leave without some kind of advanced notice. So, you think a year or so?"

Sparrow floated over and began pinching at Mum's cheek with her chubby fingers. She pulled Sparrow into her arms. "Do they ever lay down?" Mum asked with a laugh.

"Yeah," Hermione said, letting Sparrow suckle on her finger. "When they're sleeping. She's hungry, I think. Still not really sure."

Her mum shared an understanding look with her. "Are you breastfeeding?"

She nodded, and spoke, "For a few months more, at least."

She sat down in the most comfortable chair in the room, it wasn't at all comfortable, and prepared. She summoned the soft baby blanket, and threw it over her shoulder. It was light enough so the baby would be able to breath, but so that she would be modest. Severus was having a low toned conversation with her parents, across the room.

She closed her eyes as Sparrow nursed and thought back to everything that had happened to lead to this. All of her preparations had paid off. Voldemort hadn't even realized Harry was already de-souled. As she had suspected, he wouldn't have known about her spell. Albus had died, as he had wanted to, but she had made him write down Severus' role in the war, and she had instructed Luna to send it, after she had left with the Dark Lord. They poisoned the Dark Lord, killed his snake, and locked him up in the Malfoy dungeons, tied securely. It was the perfect plan, and he hadn't seen it coming. She knew he was too assured of his own power to take every precaution.

Now all they had to do was wait for word from the others on how the others were getting on. The Malfoys would be getting off on a lighter sentence, they weren't fully innocent after all. Draco would testify that he had let in the Death Eaters, and accept a plea bargain. Or, at least, that's how she hoped it would go.

She kissed the top of Sparrow's head and softly smiled in contentment. Severus was alive, she had gotten him to care about life. His promise to try had been fulfilled. That brought her mind to the matter of the Unbreakable Vow that Lucius had roped Severus into. Was it still active, even now?

Her mind swirled with the uncertainties ahead.

* * *

Once again, in her homeland, Hermione held tightly to her children's hands. They had stayed much longer in Australia than one year, or even two. She had raised them, close to their grandparents, for ten years. Wolfram remained close to her side as they entered Diagon Alley, his face curious but withdrawn. Sparrow lept out ahead, laughing and smiling at all the new sights and sounds. She ran towards the Menagerie first, eyes wide with excitement. "Half Crup puppies, Mum!"

Sparrow squealed as she looked at them through the dusty shop window. The puppies began licking at the pane, trying to give her love. Hermione walked steadily to the register, where a young man stood, looking bemused by Sparrows joyful exuberance. "How much for- wait a moment, Wolfie do you want anything?"

Wolfram's eyes travelled the entirety of the shop, before he silently shook his head no.

"One crup puppy then- pick only one Sparrow-" Sparrow put down the other three puppies in her arms, with a sad look upon her face. "We will take one, what is the price?"

"10 galleons for the animal, an extra 20 for a years supply of food, shipped to Hogwarts, if needed. Basic accessories included." The young man rattled off. He looked between her and the kids, probably wondering why she looked no more than an especially older sister.

Hermione paid up, and left before he could talk to her about them.

Sparrow happily held the puppy all the time as they made their errands, getting ready for Hogwarts. Wolfram looked a bit bored, like he would rather be at home with his dad. She would too, but the fact of the matter was children need supplies before running off to school, no matter how wicked brilliant they thought they were.

She entered Ollivander's and felt a sort of _déjà vu_. Everything seemed exactly as it had years ago, and yet she knew much had happened in the time between. Her wand hummed in the strap.

"Ollivander?" Hermione called out, and he appeared, lamp-like eyes staring at her and the children with surprise.

"My, my- these are yours?" Ollivander snapped and several boxes flew out to land on the counter. "Oh, how the time flies… It seems like just yesterday I was showing you your wand."

Ollivander seemed to have reached that point in his life where he had an ageless quality about him. Wolfram hung back as Sparrow jaunted forward to pick up a wand and give it a flick. Once she had done so, and broke the windows as a result, he moved forward, laughing at her.

"Always the first to rush in, little sister."

Sparrow stuck her tongue out, and picked up another wand, while Hermione and Ollivander repaired the windows. "If you are so great, you try it!"

He raised his eyebrow in the perfect imitation of his father, and said, "I will."

His voice was unbroken, so the effect was mostly neutralized by his boyishness. Wolfram sidled up to the wands, and laid his small hand over them, searching for the right magical signature. At length he searched, until he picked up one, and gave it a wave. By that point, parts of the shop were still left standing from Sparrow's own search. Eventually, Ollivander just told her to hold it, and not to wave it about. Sparrow found hers first, with Wolfram coming just after. But, at least he hadn't taken out the door.

Ollivander smiled at each of them. First he spoke to Wolfram, "Ebony and Unicorn hair, 10 and ¾ inches, unyielding " Then to Sparrow, "Sycamore, phoenix feather, 11 inches. Bendy."

"What does that mean?" They both asked.

"Curious about wandlore, are you two?" Ollivander spoke, "Perhaps you would like a book on it or?"

"No, tell us!" Sparrow excitedly said.

Hermione sat down in the only chair, now repaired, and let her twins sit on either knee. Ollivander spoke after the both of them were settled in, listening intently, "Sycamore and phoenix is an interesting combination. The Sycamore is always thirsting for new experiences, and the phoenix delights in learning new and varied spells. There may be some problem focusing as a result."

Hermione sighed, "Don't I know it."

"Hey!" Sparrow interjected, bouncing on Hermione's knee.

"As for the Ebony and Unicorn… That is a wand for a truly unique individual. Someone that does not bow to pressure from outside forces." Ollivander spoke, "Good for combative magic and Transfiguration."

Wolfram gave the slightest of smiles, pleased with the explanation. He looked at Sparrow with a sort of competitive smirk. Sparrow gave it right back. 'Uh-oh' Hermione thought, 'Here we go again.'

* * *

The train whistled, warning passengers it was soon to depart; Sparrow and Wolfram were already aboard, waving to them from their compartment that they were sharing with Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley. Teddy was making rabbit ears over Victoire's head, his hair a bright shade of green. Victoire waved calmly to her parents, Bill and Fleur.

Hermione watched them depart, slightly teary, and turned to hug Fleur and Tonks. The men looked at each other awkwardly, unsure if they were meant to hug as well.

"Severus, it's good to see you both alive," Remus spoke, looking far better than he had in years. Having a steady income would do that to you. "When you both disappeared after the battle, we were all worried. Even your later messages were not quite as reassuring as seeing you, face-to-face."

Severus nodded in acceptance of Remus' words. "How fortunate that all of us have a reason to see each other again."

"Severus," Hermione spoke slyly, "We should invite them for tea... at our new place. I'm sure they must be wondering what happened all the years we lived in Australia."

Severus turned and left, not agreeing or disagreeing to her request.

"He'll come around." Hermione spoke, waving goodbye to the people she hadn't seen for years and hurrying after Severus. She suspected he would be on the other side, and she was right. He grabbed her elbow as soon as she appeared on the other side of the platform wall, and disapparated.


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

**The Royal Rule 34**

* * *

**Beta'd by Bluefirefly5:**

**Did you know that the law requiring a London taxi driver to carry a bale of hay on top of his cab to feed the horse was in force until 1976?**

* * *

**10 years earlier, before the battle.**

Grimmauld Place was deathly quiet, both babies were sleeping peacefully, as were Harry and Luna. Hermione was waiting for Severus in the library, the babies laying in two small bassinets next to her. She had a book open in her lap, but she wasn't reading it. She had her eyes staring, unfocused, out the window. She heard the faint pop of apparition on the stoop of the house, and went to the door of the library. She waited for him to quietly open it and step inside, the flap of his cloak behind him. He looked upon her with an unreadable expression, and spoke softly, "May I see them?"

"Of course." She spoke and led him to the two sleeping babes. The girl one yawned widely and opened her eyes, they were darkening rapidly. She looked at Severus, quietly curious. "I haven't been able to choose a name, as of yet. Maybe we could come up with some together."

Severus held his hand out to the wide-eyed girl. Hermione watched the play of emotions across his face; he was crying. Tears trickled down either side of his face, although he wasn't making any expression. "She's perfect."

Hermione sighed, glad that he was here, and that he loved them both so easily. The boy woke at his fathers voice, his eyes moving to look at Severus. They were currently a hazel sort of color, moving between blue and light brown. Severus' breath came in a short gasp, as he caught the boys' eyes. "They both are." He spoke at last.

The girl magically pulled on a lock of Severus' hair, trying to bring his attention back to her. He chuckled and brought her out, carefully, from the bassinet, and cradled her between his knees. The girl reached for his finger and tried putting it in her mouth, it wouldn't really fit so she mostly mouthed around it. "She's a lot like you." He spoke lightly, laughing with an untempered joy. "Will do anything for attention."

Hermione pouted, "I didn't do anything for attention."

"Of course not, Hermione." Severus spoke sardonically, "The boy is awfully quiet, just staring at me and his sister."

She nodded, picking him up out of the bassinet, and sitting next to Severus on the loveseat. She then put the boy on her legs in mimicry of what Severus had done. "Yes, he's very quiet, very watchful. He almost never makes a sound, unless the girl starts it up first. He doesn't like her crying. He's always paying more attention to her than anything else in the room."

Severus was only smiling softly, looking content for perhaps the first time in his life. "He's like our Animagus forms. The wolf and the raven. Watchful, but protective."

Hermione was startled, and said, "You never told me that you were also an Animagus."

He nodded. "I rarely use it. Not much point now that I can fly other ways without a broom."

Hermione thought back to the book of baby names that she had been reading before Severus came. She summoned it from across the room and turned to the W names. She read a name aloud. "Wolfram, Derived from the Germanic element wulf meaning "wolf" combined with hramn "raven"."

"Wolfram Granger-Snape. How does that sound?" He spoke lowly at the watchful infant. The baby blinked and then made a slight smile. He turned to Hermione, "Unless you'd rather keep your name or take mine?"

Hermione shook her head no, "I like that, hyphenation. Our names sound nice next to each other."

"Albus is ready to move forward with the plan, as soon as the Dark Lord makes his move… We will spring the trap. I tried to convince him not to die, but he seemed convinced that it would be essential for proving you would wish to go with the Dark Lord, and that the Dark Lord would be too sure of himself after that point." Severus spoke, as the girl kept mouthing his knuckles. "Unreasonable old man."

Hermione laughed, both at the sight of Severus letting a child slobber all over his hand and at his words. "He's made up his mind on that, Severus. And I have already tried to argue with him about it enough. At least I will get him to write a pardon note for you, explaining that you were acting on orders, from the head of the Order of the Phoenix."

Severus swept a dry hand in her hair, curling a strand around his finger, "You are brilliant, you know that? Your plan is so much better than Albus'."

She laughed, a tinkling laugh, and spoke, "I should hope so. I've had nothing but time and newborn babies on my hand for months now. You made the toxin, right?"

He nodded, and began nuzzling her neck in a distracting way. Suddenly, he pulled back with a welt on his cheek. He looked at the girl, who was looking at them both innocently. The boy looked angry, with his brows furrowed. "Wolfram, look away if it bothers you so much. This is how you were made, well partly at any rate."

Wolfram turned to look at his sister, as if following his father's orders.

* * *

**During the battle, kind of.**

Draco stood behind the Dark Lord, a syringe of toxin in his hands, smiling wickedly at Hermione and Uncle Severus. He laughed, poking the Dark Lord a few more times in the spine with the needle. Hermione began to look at him with an unamused expression. She opened her mouth to speak, but he headed her off before she could reprimand him. She was turning into such the mother hen. "I know, I know, go release Ginny and then get the hell out of here. You've already explained my part fives times, Hermione."

Uncle Severus rose his eyebrows at him as Hermione crossed her arms pointedly, and looked at the door to the lower areas. Draco sighed, and slightly whined in good humor, "Never get to have fun with unconscious Dark Lords around here." But he left to do his mission, as they scrambled to secure the Dark Lord. His dad's role was already done, the wards were beginning to drop and Draco had to move quickly to her cell. He rushed to it, and was pleased to see that the few Death Eaters left behind were out on the grounds, fighting the Aurors that were storming the place. He walked up to her cage, already holding a change of clothes for her.

She didn't look up at him, he felt a tight ball of guilt, looking at her exposed shoulders. He quickly unlocked the cage and floated the clothes into her lap. "Time to go home."

She stood up, and dressed as his back was turned. "I hope you can forgive me some day, for my part in this." He spoke; something seemed caught in his throat, so he said it painfully. Each word was a tight squeeze to get out.

She walked out with her head held high, as if she hadn't been held prisoner here for months, naked and ashamed. He respected her for that. He didn't know where she got that quiet strength from, but it made him appreciate her even more than he had before. At first, he had thought it was only a lust thing. He had hoped that was all it was. But over time, he began to see her in a different light. He would volunteer to take food to her, and sometimes he would stay for a few moments to talk. At first she was unresponsive, then angry, then mocking, and then she began to talk to him as well. At first about stupid things, and then about some of her fears. But she never asked him to touch her, or tried to hold his hand. Draco was worried he was falling in love with another girl who wouldn't love him back, who probably couldn't after what he had permitted to happen to her.

He walked out behind her, hands held high in a gesture of surrender. The Aurors summoned his wand, and locked it up, and then tied him. He would go with them, and he would confess. It was the least he could do.

* * *

**Sometime after the battle, but not quite a year after.**

When Harry read the note, he was pissed. It came with two vials of memories, one from Severus Snape, and one from Albus Dumbledore. He, and the rest of the Order, made sure the memories were not falsified in any way. And then they had to admit that they were wrong. Harry recalled that Hermione had never once said that the man had betrayed them, not once did she speak out in anger against him. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed, hadn't thought for a second that she was involved with him. That the babies were his… Harry had actually believed they had been Krum's, somehow. He had been so blind to it all.

And now, she had done a run. She, the babies, and Severus Snape were all nowhere to be found. Harry had had to accept the Order of Merlin, first class, for the bastard. He wondered if and when they would ever come back, or were they too afraid of their reception. 'Well, they bloody well should be. Especially Snape, taking her away from us all, from her friends.' He thought.

He hoped they were with her family, at the very least, because he didn't like the idea of them alone together. No matter the fact that that ship had already sailed, Wolfram and Sparrow being the proof of that.

Draco Malfoy was out of Azkaban, after a brief stint, and was planning to go back to Hogwarts to finish his NEWTs. Harry knew that Draco was mostly going back to have a chance with Ginny Weasley. No matter what the ferret said about turning a new leaf.

One good thing with Hermione and Severus Snape's plan was getting the Dark Lord away from battle made their side much stronger than his. In addition to the Aurors having their minds freed from the Imperius curses, they had the entire Order assembled for that fight. The Dark Lord had kept half of his fighters away, and hadn't even used the Giants; he thought he was so sure of victory. The entire DA was there, fighting as Hermione had trained them. Using cover, being smart, moving out of the way of curses effectively. As a result, they lost very few people.

He remembered the spell she had cast on him, prior to the battle, the way it had felt to finally be free of Voldemort's influence. It was a weight off his chest that he hadn't realized he had been carrying for so long. He felt jubilant then, clutching her happily. Dumbledore, still alive, twinkled merrily at him from his side of the desk. McGonagall almost broke into tears. Ron thwacked him on the back, and Luna… she kissed him, arms around his neck, and said, "I'm so glad he is gone."

"Not quite," Dumbledore had spoken, "There is still the matter of the snake, Nagini, and Lord Voldemort himself."

Harry had shook his head, and said, "That wasn't what she meant. And I am too, Luna, I am too."

He turned to her, in her wedding finery, and smiled widely at the memory. The only thing missing was Hermione. His other best friend wasn't here to see him get married. Luna had on her crazy glasses, but that just made him love her more. "Luna, you have been an inspiration to me. When I get too serious, and I think the whole world is on my shoulders, you show me I'm wrong. And that's okay. When you explain the intricacies of wrackspurts, I can't help but fall in love with your beautiful mind. I like to tell people that you are mind, I'm heart, and together we make soul. You make me grow, Luna Lovegood, and if you let me… I'd like to grow with you for the rest of my days."

She kissed him cheekily, in front of the entire wedding party and the priest, or whatever they were called in the Wizarding World, Harry hadn't paid much attention to that. "I'd like that Harry James Potter. I'd like that very much."

"You weren't supposed to kiss me yet," He laughed, "Not that I'm complaining."

She smiled, innocently, "Oh, I wasn't? I'm not sorry."

"Any words from you, Miss Luna Lovegood, before I start the final vows?" The priest, or priest equivalent, spoke.

"Yes," She said, as she took his hand, "I wanted to thank Harry for such a wonderful first dance, so many years ago, and getting to know me without writing me off. He has shown me that not everyone is as close-minded as I thought. He allowed me to open up at my own pace, to not feel like I had to close off my feelings from others, in order to not get hurt. I look forward to showing him my inner world, day by day, as he has shown me his. I vow to not close myself off from him, no matter what."

"Very well," The priest spoke, "You may now hold each others elbows in the infinity position. Very good, now repeat after me. I, Harry James Potter take Luna…"

The party after the wedding lasted well into the morning. Harry knew for a fact that he hadn't known most of the people that were congratulating him, but he found that he didn't mind it as much anymore. Maybe he had simply gotten used to his celebrity status. Or maybe, it was the beautiful, unique, intelligent woman in his arms.

* * *

**5 years later from ten years ago… or something like that.**

Sparrow absolutely loved the beach. Severus and Wolfram stayed under the umbrella and read the whole time, but Sparrow chased Hermione up and down the sandy shore. She loved exploring, picking up seashells, chasing the gulls, kicking her heels in the water, making sandcastles only to destroy them while she pretended to be Godzilla. Hermione always felt affected by her untameable positive attitude, it was contagious. Even Severus and Wolfram would have to admit that.

Hermione watched as Sparrow examined a tidal pool, eyes widely curious. She sat down next to her 6 year-old daughter. "What are these Mummy?" Sparrow asked, pointing at a strange, leafy looking animal that was a bluish green color.

"Lettuce sea slug. It eats algae, that green stuff over there, and then it can use the algae inside it to make more energy through the sun, like algae and other plants do." Hermione explained, "I think this one is the Elysia Crispata."

"Wow," Sparrow spoke, eyes sparkling with new knowledge. "And this one?"

Hermione was kept talking until the sun set and they went home, where Mum and Dad Granger were making dinner. Hermione let the kids in the house first, Sparrow running into the kitchen; from the smell of sauce on the stove, they were having spaghetti and meatballs. Wolfram walked in slowly, nose stuck in the book he was reading. He was a quick learner, already learning at the level of an eleven year old. She only wished he showed some interest in the world around him sometimes.

She tossed the beach stuff in the laundry room, and went to take a quick shower. The water was lukewarm, she liked it that way after a long day at the beach. She rinsed out the sand on her hair and skin, and dried off, wanting to eat just as much as Sparrow.

She stepped into fresh clothes and sat down in the dining room with the others. Mum had waited until she was done in the shower to serve everyone. Hermione used magic to get her portion on her plate, not wanting to fuss with the ladles.

"So," Her Dad spoke while serving himself the non magical way, "How was the beach, did you all have fun? Learn anything?" He directed the last part to Sparrow and Wolfram.

"Yes!" Sparrow shouted excitedly, "We saw a tide pool. It had all kinds of life in it. Mum told me all their names. They looked so different, and cool!"

Wolfram nodded as he put some food in his mouth, not speaking thank goodness. She couldn't stand people who talked while they had food in their mouths. Not that she could ever not love her son.

"Hermione was in her element, John." Severus smiled at her warmly, "So very patient. Teaching this little menace." He ruffled Sparrow's unruly dark brown hair. "Wolfram and I sat farther back on the shore, drank juice, and read. It was the perfect outing. No one decided to try to pick up a jellyfish this time." Here he looked pointedly at Sparrow, she blushed.

"Hey! I wanted to see what it felt like." She objected.

Severus smirked at her with a certain amount of fondness, "And so you did."

"Mum says that exper- expie- erm… Exspearmintal evidence is just as important as what you can learn from a book. Especially first-hand." Sparrow held up her hand and pointed at it. Hermione looked from her back to the food.

"For rushing into the kitchen, you are talking a lot; are you not hungry?" Hermione asked sweetly. "Maybe I should eat-"

"No!" Sparrow spoke and picked up her fork, digging in. But Hermione could tell Sparrow was too hyper to eat quietly. "See? I'm eating. I can eat and talk. As Long. As it's. Between Bites. Like This."

The table laughed at her antics, even Wolfram, who was usually pretty stoic. "Typical." He spoke, it was his new favourite word. He used it near constantly, driving everyone a little batty, as he tried to imitate his father.

"How's the business doing, Dad?" Hermione asked politely.

Her dad beamed, and then proudly spoke, "Just great. We're thinking of expanding. Perhaps hiring another practitioner. As a full partner, of course."

"You would not believe the amount of business we are getting, Hermione." Jean spoke, eating her portion slowly, savouring it. "They named us the best small dental business in Victoria."

"Wow, that is impressive."

"We're thinking of making this move permanent. I can't see us moving back to England with everything going so well here." Her dad spoke, "Of course, if you do go back, we could still see each other pretty regularly with those things of yours, what are they called?"

"Portkeys," Severus spoke, already finished with his dinner.

The kids finished soon after, and asked to leave the table, which she allowed. With only the adults left the talk turned serious. "The Australian Ministry still not permitting you both to work?" Her mum asked, concerned.

Hermione sighed, and said, "No, they don't want someone with 'unknown credentials'. They are allowing us to live here, but not allowing us to work; either for them, or for the shops in the local Wizarding village."

Severus poured them all a glass of his nettle wine. This version was a bit different since he had used plants native to Australia, but she thought they added a unique flavor to the drink. She sipped slowly as she thought about their options. "Obviously, the fact that I passed the N.E.W.T.s with all O's is of no consequence to them. They don't trust the British standards, if you can believe that."

Her dad chuckled, and spoke, "I can, I can indeed. It sounds like typical bureaucracy. Great, now Wolfie's got me saying it."

"I'm thinking that we will go back when they are due to start school at Hogwarts. By that time, Severus will have secured us a residence, and I will have an idea of what I'm going to propose to the Ministry in London. Maybe something like a dignitary position. I really want to make some changes in the way things are run over there. Still no representation for Merpeople, and other magical minorities… it's not right."

"My little activist, remember when you were eight and-" Her dad spoke excitedly, before she cut off his words.

"Dad! No! Not that story again. I get it! I was a terrible daughter and I should feel ashamed." Hermione spoke, sipping delicately at the wine.

"No, not ashamed. You were amazing, but a handful for me and your mum. Sparrow takes after you a bit in that way. Always wanting to know why, always wanting to know the deeper meanings of things. A smidgen more hyperactive though, not that that's a bad thing. She's still young. And so are you. I'm sure you will do fine." Her dad reached over and patted her knee. "Better than fine if I know you."

"Too right," Severus agreed quietly, eyes half-closed as he relaxed with his wine, and his family. Hermione thought being a family man had softened some of his edges, but knew from personal experience he was still very sharp with his tongue when he wanted to be. She felt her cheeks heat, from the wine or her thoughts, she did not know.

Later that night in bed, she sat fully upright very suddenly when a thought struck her. "But what happened to the time turners? Did they ever find them, Severus, do you remember reading about them?"

Severus turned over with a bemused smile on his face. "No, I did not. But that doesn't mean they weren't recovered. Probably just kept quiet by the Ministry. Kingsley's still in charge, and you know him, big on state secrets and need to know basis. Still better than the last two, and the absolute failure they have down here."

Hermione laid back down, still feeling unsettled. "Yeah, maybe… Goodnight, Severus."

He leaned over, and kissed her cheek, while turning off the lamp. The room went dark, and she heard him rustle back under the covers. "Goodnight, Hermione."

She lay awake in the dark for some time after that, thinking about all the loose ends she had left behind. The thoughts swirled around in her brain, not letting her rest until she had worn out every avenue she could think of. She would try some equations in the morning. Perhaps with a little math-magic she could suss out where the time-turners had gone. She kicked off her covers and laid on her stomach, the cool air soothing her back, as she pressed her face into the pillow to block out the early morning light that was beginning to stream through the windows. She shut the blinds as tight as she could with a flick of her wrist, and then closed the curtains. But she knew she would not get any sleep until tomorrow night.

Perhaps Severus could take the kids out to get ice-cream, or watch a game. Then she could have a short nap.

Soon, all too soon, Sparrow was jumping on the bed next to her. She hadn't performed magic for awhile now. Lack of use as she was supposed to blend with the muggle population, probably. Which was a godsend, because a six year Sparrow with conscious control over her magic was a scary thought indeed. Hermione groaned, not yet ready to face a new day. Severus floated Sparrow, mid-bounce, out the door and locked it.

"You didn't sleep, did you?" He asked rhetorically, and shimmied out of the bed, and towards the shower.

"No," she spoke to his retreating back. He was stark naked, no wonder he tossed Sparrow out on her ear.

"Not going to join me?" He spoke seductively as he turned on the taps.

She whimpered, somewhere caught half between wanting to jump out of bed and rush over there, and wanting to do nothing more than lay perfectly still, and hope the sounds and lights went away. "Want to. Can't move."

He laughed, evilly in her opinion, and stepped under the hot stream of water. She had one eye opened to all the loveliness, and one eye closed, trying to sleep. "Not fair," she pouted.

He slid his hand down his wet torso and gave her a lascivious wink. "I never claimed to be fair, Hermione. You know I fight dirty."

She threw the pillow at the floor, and got up, knowing that she would rather be with him, than pretend to be able to sleep a second longer. She tossed her night clothes casually aside, and joined him for a nice, steamy shower.


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

**The Royal Castle**

* * *

**Not yet beta'd.**

* * *

Hogwarts looked the same as always, a fact that both pleased him and set him ill at ease. The towers were the same cold grey, the grounds a dark and misty green, the lake an inky black, the students as dimwitted as ever. His black eyes had flashed upon his daughter and son; if anything had changed about Hogwarts, it was the cessation of the sorting event, they no longer even brought the hat out. The staff was minus one, Dumbledore, plus two, Neville Longbottom, and his own brilliant wife, Hermione Granger-Snape. Mr. Longbottom was apprenticing with Pomona Sprout, who wished to retire soon. As for Hermione, she was taking a position here as a favor to Minerva, while Hermione saw the Ministry on an irregular basis.

They now gave each student points, which showed up on seven boards, one for each year, and the top ten students got the right to brag. There were seven round tables, one for each year, and seven dormitories, one for each year. The outside of Hogwarts may not have changed, but it's inner workings were vastly different, and in some ways, more of the same.

Since they made a family, Sparrow and Wolfram had their own rooms they could go to, within Hermione's old rooms. Severus had them connected to his private quarters that he shared with Hermione in the dungeons, by way of the Floo. So they had some space to grow, but he could swoop in whenever he wanted to check up on them. He figured they would mostly use the first-year dorms, unless they needed some time alone. Which Wolfram often did as he was a very private boy, much like himself in that respect.

Severus had been warned, multiple times, to try to not show favouritism to his own children, by Minerva. Of course, he had retorted, "Like you didn't show Harry Potter. Oh no, I promise to be as fair and balanced as you were, Minerva."

She had pursed her lips, and left. Obviously, she was not able to come up with a witty comeback. Hermione had stumbled on them, and giggled as Minerva turned the corner. "I see you have already earned her ire, Severus. I remember that look, quite well, from when you two used to bicker over your house teams in Quidditch. Strange that Quidditch teams are now privately organized by the students and then approved of by us. They do come up with some pretty interesting names, though, don't they?"

Severus scowled, "You can't pay me enough galleons to root for a team called 'Neville's Drawers'."

"Aww," She laughed, pulling him into an alcove protected by a tapestry, and ran her hands up his coat. He was going for a stylish double breasted coat these days, still in black, though. "I quite like the Princesses team. They have panache."

He raised his eyebrow, and stared down into her sparkling eyes. He felt his body warm with expectation. She had that well practiced coy smirk in place, and her hands on his front was driving him to distraction. "I think Minerva would have a problem with us snogging in the halls like randy teenagers."

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Hermione stood on the tips of her toes, and nipped at his ear, before she sultrily spoke, "Severus, don't resist me. I need you."

He growled, and pushed Hermione back into the wall. She made a happy sound of pleasure, and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her arms took hold of his coat, and she spelled the buttons out of their holes. He groaned as she found his pebbled nipples, and gave them a light flick. "Hermione," He spoke huskily, somewhere between warning her not to touch him and urging her on. "Please."

The pads of his hands were scraped by the stony wall, his hands on either side of her head, some of her luscious hair tickling his knuckles. Her pupils were widening by the second as he simply stared into her lovely face. "When I take you, promise me that you won't scream."

She shivered with desire, automatically wetting her lips. His eyes flickered at the sight with great interest. "Wards. We're going to need really strongs wards."

"Who do you take me for, Hermione?" He teased her, wand already making complicated motions in the air between them. "Some troll-brained boy that is finally making first base with a girl." His voice became lower still, knowing how much it affected her. "Tell me, Professor, how was my form?"

He slid himself against her in a slight rocking movement, she hissed and clutched at him. "Perfect, Mr. Snape-" she exhaled breathily "-ah, mmm, more to the-" he adjusted his position slightly "-guh, just right. All the points."

He laughed throatily, and caressed the hair back her face. He could have no greater pleasure than watching her, as she got hers. Her face in the moment of complete ecstasy was beyond words. When she came back to him, she blushed bright red, and spoke, "Oh, hello, Minerva."

His back tensed. "Bugger all."

"Language, Mr. Snape. Don't the two of you have private quarters you could go to?" The Headmistress spoke, holding back the tapestry for only a moment, before she clicked off down the halls again.

"Worth it." Hermione spoke, adjusting her clothes. He could only agree with her on that point. He forgot that the Headmistress could get through all wards at Hogwarts. Perhaps an Invisibility Cloak would be a wise purchase.

"The Cloak is made from Thestral hair, you know, that's why it protects the user so well from sight. Of course, it can only be seen through by people who have killed as an act of mercy. Dumbledore, being one such person. Of course, he made it seem like it was simply his overall age and strength of Magic... He could have stopped them, when they snuck up on me in that cloak... Ambushed me in the halls, humiliating me... But, he never did. I'm not sure that even his death will give me reason to forgive him. To that end, I do not wish to entertain any Marauders in our home, Hermione. I know you will ask again, come Christmas, but the answer will still be no."

She looked at him with her chin set stubbornly, a crackling intensity in her eyes. "Severus," She spoke lowly, a warning in her voice, "Remus and Sirius are adults now, and so are you. Isn't it time to let go of past grievances?"

He tightened all over, ready to fight this point tooth-and-nail if he must. He stormed out past the tapestry, with her following behind him. He ignored her calls, and rushed down ahead of her to their quarters, which he warded against her. That would buy him some time to stop his anger, before he took it out on her. His wards shivered and fell much sooner than he expected. He felt her enter the room; with his back turned away from her, he couldn't see her face, but he expected it to look quite fierce. His hands clenched tightly to the desk, where they did their grading. His eyes settled on a familiar ink stain. It brought a sort of guilty pleasure to remember how that had happened.

The room dropped in temperature, and the magic could be felt rising out of her and biting against his skin. She didn't say anything, and that's when he knew he was in trouble. "Never, Hermione. I can never forgive them. It wasn't just harmless pranking for me. They pushed me into the arms of the Dark Lord. I would not have tried so hard to secure a position in Slytherin, if I didn't feel so threatened outside of it. Stop pushing me to make nice with them."

She growled, and he knew that behind him, she would be in her wolf form. Her ears would be flat on her head, her lips pulled back in a snarl. Her paws hit him on his back, and she wound her arms around his neck. She gave him a kiss on his neck, she was now a human again, and settled her chin on his shoulder. "Okay… I am sorry for pushing you, Severus."

The tension left his body, and he turned in her arms, picking her up off the floor. She laughed, happily, as he said softly into her smiling face, "My lovely girl."

* * *

The fire in the hearth crackled to life in the shape of one of her oldest friend's face. He called out from the fireplace, gaining her attention from the couch, where she had been reading the papers, both muggle and magical. She lowered the papers to her lap, eyebrow quirked in semi-amusement, and looked at him waiting to talk to her. He kept looking about the room. She stifled a laugh at his absurd appearance, turning it into a short cough. He seemed unusually wary for some reason. It, of course, had nothing at all to do with the man she loved and married, sarcasm very much intended. His eyes settled on the boy sitting on the rug beside her, writing his essay. His eyes widened, noticing the strong resemblance he made to Severus, undoubtedly.

Wolfram got up without a word, and left the room to the grown-ups. He liked having silence to write, so much so that he couldn't write in any room Sparrow was in, because she would drive him insane. She liked to tap her feet against the table, swinging them to get rid of excess energy.

"Wow, I hadn't seen him yet. His eyes, almost exactly like yours, but in his shape. Was it just the light, or are they a little bit green?" Harry rambled at her from the fireplace.

Hermione nodded, perfunctorily, and spoke with a dry tone of voice, "May I help you with something, Harry? I'm rather busy trying to comb these papers for anything that could hint at where the missing Time Turners went. And then I have to mark about 1000 essays."

"That's the thing. I might have a lead on that." Harry's head bounced in the grate with enthusiasm, "The DoM, that's the-"

"Department of Mysteries, yeah I know, please continue," She interrupted quickly.

"Well, yeah… The guys there have noticed a bit of temporal activity recently. Or rather, sometime in the future. Whatever they were saying kind of went over my head, but the jist is that the Time Turners are being used in succession. They think, whoever it was that took them, went back a day at the very least. I don't see what good only a full day could do, but then again… I'm not from the DoM. If they seem worried, I trust their judgement on the matter."

Hermione made a noise of non-commitment. "That fits my theory. You would only need a day to take advantage of the stock market. Not much else can be done with such short range time manipulation. Besides multiplying yourself to do a bigger job than one person could do in that time. Severus doesn't think that it was a part of Tom Riddle's plan. He thinks it was someone's personal idea, someone who was there during the original mission to get the orb. I concur, I don't think Voldemort was at all smart enough to pull off something like this. He was much more obvious about his intentions. Unfortunately, we have no idea who was their for that job, and who would know who was."

"You've asked Lucius Malfoy?" Harry inquired.

Hermione laughed, "I'm not sure that he wasn't involved in this. I did ask him though, but he seemed reluctant to give me a full account of that time."

Hermione went quiet for a while, remembering her visit to the Malfoy's. The log settled in the grate, making a pop that startled out of her reverie. "I'm sorry, Harry. I know you asked me to be a consultant on this, and I haven't had much luck figuring this case out."

His face looked sympathetic, as he said almost quietly, "You saw them, huh? I hear she has finally conceived. No doubt that the hold up was on his end, not hers."

"Please, Harry… as if I care about that. I just miss him sometimes, you know. Like I would miss you and Luna, if you two weren't always in my grate, pestering me. More you than Luna, now that I think about it. I'm pretty sure the reason she hadn't conceived was due to her scheduling with the Harpies. She has time now to take a few years off for having a kid or two. Honestly, Harry, not every woman wants babies as soon as possible. Some don't want any at all." Hermione chastised him; he could be rather foolish sometimes.

"How's my godson, by the way?"

Hermione groaned, between Sparrow and Teddy… she'd have a heart attack one of these days. It's not that either of them were bad at Transfiguration, they were in fact her two best first years, with Wolfram not far behind. They were just so hyperactive, Sparrow, and cocky, Teddy. She had to make sure they were on task, or who knows what they would do. "He likes to show off a bit; I think Sirius is a very bad influence on him. He's a dab hand at Transfiguration, though. He's always egging Sparrow on, to do more, to be more reckless in class."

Harry laughed, appreciatively, which she didn't care for one bit.

"Hey! It's easy for you to laugh now. Wait till Remus asks you to watch him, see what shenanigans he gets up to with your kids. Probably teach them how to get into the "special" drawer, if you get my meaning."

Hermione couldn't be sure, but it seemed like Harry had blanched right before her eyes. "He wouldn't… Would he?"

"I see that you have started to see things my way." She smugly spoke, raising the newspapers again to her face. "Goodbye, Harry."

"Alright, I see when I'm not wanted!" Harry jokingly shouted, "I'll try to dig up more on the Time Turners, and get back to you about them sometime soon. Bye, Hermione!"

Hermione immersed herself in the words on the page, hours went by like that with the occasional flick of a page, or the snap from the wood burning merrily in the grate. Everything was quiet in the news, too quiet if you asked her. No strange deaths, like in the old days, that would have made a huge red flag for her investigation. She was looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack, only she wasn't sure it would be a needle, or if it would even be in the haystack. Perhaps, after grading, she could come back to it with eyes afresh. For now, she knew that she was spinning her wheels.

She left the papers on the seat and got up, stretching out the muscles in her back and neck from sitting still for so long. Watson, the crup that Sparrow had so enthusiastically asked for, raised his head from his paws and looked at her inquisitively when she yawned widely. "I know, I know. I let things go until too late. Now I'm going to be up most of the night. Ah, to be you, Watson, with no cares in the world. Except for when your master would be home to give you love. A simple life, Watson, that's what I am missing. Yet, I don't think a simple life is for me."

The dog whined and began licking her fingers. "No, I can't play right now. I have to grade. Last time, you broke a lamp, bouncing around after me, you clumsy oaf."

His tails thumped against her leg and the couch in a steady rhythm, puppy dog eyes in full effect, but they wouldn't move her this time. She sat down at the table with the stack of essays piled up beside it, tied with string to keep them in place. Watson followed behind her, nose bumping her on the leg persistently.

She sighed, looking between the stack of ungraded papers and the over-eager puppy. "Oh, alright! Just a short run, but outside this time; Severus was not very happy with us last time."

The grounds were cool and dark as she shifted into her wolf form. A frost was coating each blade of grass, so her paws crunched loudly as she ran, Watson on her tail. He nipped at her long tail, but she kept it high and out of reach. His head only reached her shoulders when she was in wolf form, and that was if he stretched his neck a bit. He was smart enough to know that she was his master, whether she was in wolf form or not, so he didn't try any dominance games with her. It would be too funny if he did.

She became a bit parched, so she ran him over to the lake. The water was as cold as ice, but not quite frozen yet. She lapped quickly, and watched the ripples break up the reflection of the moon across the water. She noticed it's phase, and was reminded of Remus and Bill, no doubt that they would be changing tonight. She gave a lonesome howl for them, and heard an answering call not long after. Her hackles rose, that was a werewolf call… and not far from where she and Watson were ambling by the lake and the edge of the forest.

She went completely quiet, and wriggled behind a large rock. Her nose couldn't smell the werewolf, but that didn't mean it couldn't smell her. As long as she stayed a wolf, she was likely fine, but she didn't like the idea of an unknown werewolf that close to the school grounds. She would have to inform Minerva. Perhaps, even at this late of an hour, she would be awake and in her office. She ran back up to the castle at a sprint, changing as she ascended the castle steps. She opened the door and rushed Watson inside, only to run into Severus as she came in. The doors closed heavily behind her, and she noticed his eyes rake over her.

"You are uninjured. What has you so spooked, Hermione?" He asked, walking beside her as they headed together for the Headmistress' Office.

"Go to Sparrow, Watson." She spoke, and the dog peeled off, and left in the direction of Sparrow's dorm. For awhile after that she didn't speak, but he did not press her to begin to do so. Until they were at the Gargoyle, and she stopped. She turned to look at him, the lamp light accentuating the lines he had on his brow. He looked darkly imposing, but she was unwavered. "How likely is it that Fenrir may have made another wolf that we don't know about?"

His brow creased some more, especially the middle line between his eyebrows, as he seemed to think at length about the question. "Not bad odds, but not particularly good ones either."

"Who is missing still? I know that Trelawney and Professor Gold are among the teachers that were never recovered from Malfoy Manor."

"Gold was working with the Dark Lord, I don't think he was ever truly loyal, and he was the primary jailer for Trelawney. As for the rest of the missing; there should be records at the Ministry, you might be able to wheedle Potter into giving you a copy. I doubt many of them are still alive. I already crossed many off of their original list that I saw die right in front of me." He tensed before her, reliving past guilt.

She waited patiently for him to come out of it. "Thank you, Severus, if you weren't there... many of those families would not have had closure."

He nodded briskly, and stepped past her to speak the password to the Gargoyle, St. Andrews, and up he went, with her following behind. He spoke as they ascended, "I thought it best that we get there before she's had her nightcap."

She laughed, quietly, and replied, "Good idea. She's such a lightweight, but don't tell her I said that."

The door swung open to reveal Minerva standing behind it in her tartan dressing gown, a high blush to her cheek and her arms crossed angrily. "Am ur NAY a ligh' weigh', lassie."

Severus groaned, and spoke sufferingly, "Too late."

"Dinnae act like you're better than me, Sev'rus." Minerva wobbled slightly as she walked back to her chair, settling for one by the fire, instead of the one behind the desk. Hermione thought that was probably wise. "A ken where yur fae, bairnie."

"I'm almost 50 years old now, Minerva, I'm hardly a child." Severus called up for tea, perhaps for himself as Minerva wasn't likely to be cured of this until the morning at best.

"Tae me ye are." She spoke, as if that was all that need be said about the subject. "Whit ye come round for?"

"Perhaps, it's best I leave this business until morning," Hermione tried to back pedal out of the door.

"Dinnae talk mince. Out with it." Minerva spoke, her eyes still sharp.

Hermione settled down next to her, taking advantage of the warmth from the fire. "Well, there's no easy way of saying this, so I'm just going to say it. I heard a werewolf fairly close to the school while I was out for a run tonight. I think it's one of Greybacks brood. I can't think of why there would be an unknown werewolf so close to a school for children. Of course, it's not Greyback himself. But I think it was someone he turned that enjoys being a wolf. Someone who might very well be dangerous."

Minerva's eyebrows rose to new heights, and she exclaimed, "That's a tale. Maybe ye were right, lass. A cannae prop'ly think on it right' nae. Aff tae bed wit ye two. Come round in the morn."

Minerva shooed them out, and Hermione had the distinct impression that she had been playing them the whole time as she walked away from them without the wobble, as the door closed.

* * *

By the next morning, Hermione had acquired the list of missing persons from the Ministry, and had looked through it thoroughly. She sat between Minerva, on the left side of her, and Severus, on the right side, that morning at breakfast. She handed the list to her, and spoke lowly, "If it was Greyback, it should be a person who was under 18 at the time." Hermione shuddered in remembrance of the stories about Greyback that she had forced out of Severus to assist in her investigation. She almost wished she hadn't asked, so terrible were the tales.

"Well, there is Dennis Creevy, of course, Lavender Brown also fits, Miss Parkinson, as well, and Romilda Vane. The rest of the missing persons are a bit too old." Minerva spoke as she looked over the list. "They could have been snatched by Greyback after you left with Voldemort during the battle. It took us awhile to pick up most of the Death Eaters and have them stand trial, and Greyback was one of the last we found. None of these people were with him, though."

"I shall ask Draco if he has heard of any rustlings from Pansy Parkinson. I can't think that they would kill her. Maybe he has seen her, but not reported her as found. The rest are less likely to be alive, as they were all Dumbledore supporters, and Gryffindors besides." Hermione's face turned grim as she thought of the very real possibility that they might never find her classmates.

"I will come with you, when you decide to call on him, Hermione," Severus spoke from her right, "I think he will answer the both of us, if we put the pressure on him to do so. With his father back from Azkaban… he's not as easily cowed as he once was. He was starting to think himself Lord of the Manor, and now he has to prove to Lucius he can also walk the walk as well as talk the talk. I shall never understand Malfoys. For all intents and purposes, he has done his best to grow into the spitting image of Lucius. When Narcissa passed away, even after all he had done to try to save her in his power as a healer, Draco became as closed off and arrogant as his father."

Neville spoke quietly, but insistently from Severus' right, down the table a bit, "Yeah, I was working with him on the cure for my parents at the time. After the success with my parents, having his Mum waste away like that really broke him. I haven't been able to speak to him since. I still feel guilty, even though I know there wasn't anything to be done for Narcissa, because- you know- my own parents might have distracted him from putting his full effort into finding something to save her. But we were so excited to see the trials worked so well, and were so focused on getting my parents back that- maybe we weren't keeping our eyes out for anything that might have kept her alive a bit longer."

Severus shook his head at Neville, his face tense, and spoke quietly back, "No, it had been years of work to find something for your parents… you couldn't expect a few weeks would have made the difference for Narcissa."

Hermione remembered them both, happy and in love, when she had visited the Malfoy residence so long ago. Even then, Narcissa had been showing signs of the strange disease that had finally taken her life. She had been not much older than Severus when she had passed, too young, especially by Wizarding standards. Lucius had doted on her even then, and now, when Hermione looked at him she only saw his loneliness eating away at him. Lucius had only his son left to love, which was no real substitute. After everything, he hadn't even been able to go to her as she was dying in St. Mungos, as he had been confined to Azkaban. It was a tragic loss for the Malfoy family. And where had Hermione been? In Australia, with her parents, her husband, and her children, living the idyllic life.

"Let's not be too hard on him, Severus. I'm sure, if he knows where Pansy is, he will tell us." Hermione spoke, slightly guilty.

"I will only do what is needed, Hermione, you know that." Severus' eyes looked down at the arm that now was clear of his mark of servitude. She suspected that in some ways he could still see it, as if it had never faded. "Whatever it takes."


End file.
